In the wisdom of ancient Christian tradition Easter is not a one-day event but a season, the fifty days between Easter and Pentecost. The idea is that the message of Resurrection is so huge, so transcendent that it cannot be contained in a one-day observance. As I write we are halfway through the Season of […]
A Congregation Gathering for Worship
March 14, 2018 by 6 Comments
Pastors are busy on Sunday morning, stretched thin, attending to a thousand and one details: have all the ushers shown up, are there enough bulletins, is the sanctuary warm, sidewalks clear of snow? Are the musicians in place, is the family on time and every child present and accounted for, and looming over all, is […]
Working for Something Better
January 27, 2018 by 4 Comments
A technological error resulted in the previous post being published without the final two paragraphs! Apologies to you all! Below is an updated version of “Working for Something Better” with the entirety of John’s reflections. Thanks for your patience. The President’s racism hits me like a body blow. Of course I know that people talk […]
Working for Something Better
January 24, 2018 by 5 Comments
The President’s racism hits me like a body blow. Of course I know that people talk like that, and that both individual and institutional racism remain alive and well. But over the years I have harbored the hope and assumption that progress was being made. The old familiar words for racial minorities are no longer […]
No More Silence
August 17, 2017 by 15 Comments
At first I thought that David Brooks was on to something in his New York Times editorial, August 8, 2017: “Getting Trump Out of My Brain.” I nodded in sympathy with Brooks’ observation: “For the past two years Trump has taken up an amazing amount of my brain space. My brain has apparently decided that […]
As My Eyes Sweep Across the Fields
May 8, 2017 by 5 Comments
Why does it take almost eighty years to notice how many shades of green there are in the spring time? As my eyes sweep across the fields and the woods in the distance on my early morning drive to town for the newspaper I see a palette, the palest of greens – almost pastel yellow […]
If the Answer is “Yes.”
October 18, 2016 by 25 Comments
I have resisted the temptation to weigh in more than I already have on the Donald Trump phenomenon because we are saturated. Television news and the newspapers can’t keep their eyes off of him and I confess that I watch the 7:00 a.m. news because I don’t want to miss the latest outlandish thing he […]
Humble and Riding on a Donkey
March 18, 2016 by 2 Comments
If there is anything better than a large group of children of all ages on Palm Sunday, marching down the center aisle of the church waving palm branches while the congregation sings the great Palm Sunday hymn, “All Glory, laud and Honor To Thee Redeemer King, To whom the lips of children Made sweet hosannas […]
Hold to the Good 
Tikkun Olam
For years, at the conclusion of public worship, I have used words that come from St. Paul, written 2,000 years ago. “Go into the world in peace and courage. Hold to the Good. Honor all God’s children. Love and serve the Lord, Rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.” Last Sunday, as a guest preacher […]