We’re hard on the Church in general. We’re hard on the American Church in specific. We can take turns on the reasons each of us are hard on the Church.
I am hard on the American conservative Church because of its spiritual blindness. Yet… I stay with it. Why?
Continue reading “The glorious church we miss seeing”The past week or so has been a week of angst on social media and the media in general. How do you have a nice meal with people who are not in your political camp?
Mostly, it’s about “tolerating” the “difficult” people. (It never occurs to us that we’re the difficult ones at times.)
Continue reading “The thanksgiving meal and… ummm… “difficult” people” Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.
A friend recommended the book The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero. It as a book influencing his life so he recommended it to me. I am grateful.
There is a chapter on Sabbath in the book that coincided with a podcast I finished on the same day. The podcast is an interview with A J Swoboda and it is well worth your time to listen.
Continue reading ““If they stop they’ll die…””My wife and I saw It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood this weekend. It is a marvelous movie that leaves you full of hope. How we need hope.
Continue reading “It’s a beautiful day… and we’re losing”Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use us, we pray, as we will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (William Temple)
In reading the book The End of Hunger, there was the good news combined with the challenge. The good news was that a massive amount of work has been accomplished in the past 25 years. Severe hunger is being reduced statistically. The bad news is that the last bit to go to eliminate the issue by 2030 is still costly. We can’t let up. We have to stay focused and work harder. It is easier to cut a problem in half than to eliminate it.
I thought of this as I sat in a historic black Episcopal Church in Montgomery, Alabama this week. The subject wasn’t hunger. The subject was historic and systemic racism. The subject was justice.
Continue reading “The work we still need to do”