Prepare a thanksgiving feast, for my son, who once was dead, is alive again. Although we like to think we know what we’re doing at every age and stage of our lives, we spend a good deal of time experimenting. Who we are is determined as much by trial and error as making enlightened or faithful choices. The biblical story... READ MORE >
During the 4th of July weekend, my cycling odyssey brought me to a campground in Upstate New York. It was located on a scenic lake and all the sites with water and electricity were taken. The staff took me under their wing and offered me a place to set up my tent in a grassy overflow area. To my delight,... READ MORE >
I spent the summer bicycling from my front door in Grand Marais to the doorstep of the Gaspay Peninsula in Quebec. After three months on the road, I logged 2800 miles and had a good deal of time to reflect on the way that God’s gifts of refreshment make our life journeys possible. With new clarity, I came to appreciate... READ MORE >
Psychologist Abraham Maslow reminds us that there is a hierarchy of human needs. Our most basic needs are those of the body, such as food, water or shelter, and the need to feel safe and secure. If we focus only on meeting these basic needs, we fail to take advantage of the opportunity to move on to higher levels of... READ MORE >
The film footage from Haiti is enormously sad. The country is devastated and the number of dead and injured is in the hundreds of thousands. The world is yearning to help. Rescuers, doctors and relief agencies have been flying in from around the world. The Port Au Prince airport is filled with aircraft, stuffed with food, water and medicine. But... READ MORE >
This Christmas, I received the gift of two crosses. Mike and Nancy gave me a Russian cross of intricately carved wood. Jeff and Jenny gave me a brass cross, hammered out of a spent artillery shell from the fourteenyear civil war in Liberia. These were strange, yet beguiling Christmas presents. Taken together, they became more than friendship “gifts”— they are... READ MORE >
Much of the power of Christmas and Epiphany lies in their capacity to offer us a fresh start. In the 5th century, Pope Leo the Great observed that the Spirit of God that inspired the birth of Jesus empowers all generations of Christians to be reborn on Christmas “through the womb of the Holy Church.” If this observation is true,... READ MORE >
I recently sent a Christmas meditation to our sister church in Amatenango, Chiapas, Mexico. The parish of St. Francis is an indigenous Roman Catholic parish with whom our First Congregational UCC church in Grand Marais has enjoyed a ten-year partnership. This essay is an English rendition of my message. January 6th is the holy day of Epiphany and one central... READ MORE >
