Meditations, Ep. 3: The Way To Take

-

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Wholy Holy" (Marvin Gaye)

-
Image
Columbia Memorial Hospital faced the Catskills in the distance and stood just a half mile from the first living room I remember. The apartment possessed only two bedrooms, already too small for my father, mother, two older sisters, and newborn me. In a couple years, when my dad got a better job, we’d move. If child-bearing wasn’t what it was (and remains), I imagine my mom might have walked me home that week. But childbirth, rightly called labor, exhausts thoroughly. And with three kids all under five years of age and with a husband often working, parenthood never stopped exhausting my mother. April 10 th  of 1971 brought unseasonably wintry weather, a pointed, probing wind across the river and our city of the same name. And the alley off of Worth Avenue in downtown Hudson, New York included a steep hill up. My mom didn’t walk me home.   1971, historically speaking, isn’t notorious or notable for things like military or terrorist attacks, political assassinations, or the end...
Read more

Music As a Metaphor for God

-
Image
I have a friend, a dear friend in fact, someone I respect and admire. I’ll call him as I often do, G. When rarely the subject of religion comes up, G half-jokingly and half-proudly will declare himself a non-believer and anti-organized religion. He’d agree with Gandhi who’s been purported as saying, “I like Christ but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” At the same time, G profoundly loves music, Gospel music included. This love reaches the level of the sacred to him. Music provides him meaning, comfort, and joy, as essential to him as God is to others. G and I disagree when it comes to religion and God. But when it comes to music we are in sync. There is common ground there. Music is sacred to me, essential, a source of meaning, comfort, and joy. And G and I agree on the spiritual and musical genius of John Coltrane who composed and performed the musical masterpiece called A Love Supreme. The 4th and final movement of A Love Supreme ends with...
Read more

Making Sense of a Changed World

-
Image
Politically, we are a purplish church. There’s a mix of red and blue here. I don’t know the shade of purple exactly. I don’t monitor how you vote. I don’t look for red and blue. I look at the Jesus in you. Whatever the makeup, Democrats, Republicans, independents unite in Christ here. This to me is a beautiful thing.  That said, for some this Sunday after the election Tuesday is not so beautiful. For some, this election was especially difficult. Some are heartbroken. Really heartbroken.  However, others are heartened. And some are somewhere in between. Knowing this, how would you as a pastor here approach this meditation? How do I speak to these rather different groups of Christians at Plainville Congregational? It’s not so easy. Well, the idea that makes the most sense to me this morning is to do just that, speak both to those feeling heartbroken and to those feeling heartened.  To the heartbroken – your pain is real and difficult. I have no easy answers to give. I have...
Read more