What a fun honor! Jonathan Pennington of Southern Seminary invited me to be a guest on his new YouTube show “Cars, Coffee, Theology.” What a treat! You won’t be surprised that we talked about suffering and grace.
“YOU NEVER KNOW what may cause tears. The sight of the Atlantic Ocean can do it, or a piece of music, or a face you’ve never seen before. A pair of somebody’s old shoes can do it. Almost any movie made before the great sadness that came over the world after the Second World War, […]
…when pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all. – CS Lewis, “Preface,” The Problem of Pain.
In preparing for our Foundation Course this fall I am reading (for the first time, I confess) Nietsche’s On Truth and Lie in the Extra-Moral Sense. In it he makes the comment that intellect was given so to the “most delicate, most evanescent beings in order to hold them for a minute in existence, from which otherwise, […]
Proper 7 (12) (June 24, 2018) Alternate First reading and Psalm Job 38:1-11 Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32 Second reading 2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Gospel Mark 4:35-41 4:39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. … 41 And they […]
It is oddly gratifying and encouraging that we live in perhaps a “golden” time for those who grieve and mourn. It is commonplace this time of year, in addition to the joyous posts of children on Santa’s lap and endless photos of cookies, to read posts by and about those who struggle to make it […]
After tragedy has occurred to us, fallen upon us, how do we walk on, lacing up those painful shoes I talked about in my poor analogy? How do we carry on, day after day? We must begin by being open to and accepting the grace that is offered to us. I consider what happed to the […]
Do you think the folks at Radio Free Babylon read my essay from last week? I would like to think so.
“It is what it is.” A phrase people utter when they are enduring a hardship or, just as often, when there is a problem they would rather not deal with. It is what it is. A horrible, trite phrase. Used all the time, devoid of any real meaning, and all too often intended as a […]
In mid-February 2017 we had a funeral for a beloved member of the parish. He had lived a long, full life and his family surrounded him at his departing and gathered for the service. The first reading was this beautiful passage from The Book of Wisdom (in the Apocrypha). Wis. 3:1 But the souls of the righteous are in […]
