…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 […]
Yesterday I was reading the morning office and Ps. 118:22, one of the most familiar passages in the psalms to Christians, struck me differently. 17I shall not die, but live, * and declare the works of the LORD. 18The LORD has punished me sorely, * but he did not hand me over to death. 19Open […]
One year ago I started what would be a 9 month call to be the interim rector at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Nashville, TN. This was my first service with them, one year ago, and oddly enough it was the only time in the three-year cycle of the Revised Common Lectionary that a significant […]
