Category: Grace and Forgiveness

Barabbas, Child of God

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It was late when they finally arrested Barabbas.  At his trial he was charged with treason against Rome and murder during the insurrection.  He was found guilty of both charges and was sentenced to death by crucifixion.  The sentence is to be carried out by the end of the week.

Friday.  Execution Day. Barabbas sat in prison. His wrists and ankles chaffed by his chains.  He was scared!   He had always boasted that he feared nothing! But now, he trembled, his mouth was dry and his heart beat wildly.  He had thought many times about this day, the day of his death, and dismissed it.  But this was different, and he was not ready for any of this.  He cursed the guards and the other prisoners. Continue reading

How Did She Do That?

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One year ago, January 23, 2016, Joanne, the love of my life, the loving mom to our four kids and extended family, and friend to all, died.  Nearly five years earlier, she had been diagnosed with interstitial lung disease, most likely caused by an allergic reaction to the drug amiodorone. This disease causes scarring of the lungs and has a progressive effect on lung function, leading to death.  There is no known cure. Her prognosis was three to five years.

How does one react to the realization of such a prognosis?  How does one live each day with that in your life, just down the road a piece?  How does that effect how you interact with family and a wide circle of friends?  For her, it was her grace, love and calmness that were on display.  A close friend once observed that Joanne was the “personification of grace”, and she was!  As time passed I had cause to ask: “How does she do that?” Continue reading

Taste and See

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Have you ever been invited to a real feast? I mean an incredible feast where you walk into the dining room and there before you a beautiful buffet. You are overwhelmed by the wonderful smells that surround you as you walk by the table.  The au deurves! The aroma is so humm. Even The vegetables makes your mouth water. And then you walk by the main course and you again are overwhelmed by a perfect aroma that is hard to describe. Continue reading

Will They Know We Are Christians…

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Derek Hill, member of the leadership team for the Bible Society Group of Great Britain, has an article on the “What Christians Want To Know” website entitled “Doers of The Word: 6 Tips to Living Out Your Faith”.  Hill does not imply that his six tips are the “keys to the kingdom”, but they are a good start to living out your faith.  Included among those tips were four that really stood out for me.  My comments follow each tip: Continue reading

On Your Faith Journey

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When was the last time you examined the elements of your faith journey?  You know, those ups and downs, that inspirational moment when an event or a sermon, or some Bible study made a real difference.  Maybe it was a crisis in your life or the life of your family.  Perhaps the change happened in an ambulance on the way to a hospital.

Whatever that was, how did that change make a difference in your life? What followed that part of your faith journey? Did you find yourself more open to other’s needs? Did you seek to love your neighbor?  Did you ever consider that your personal faith journey is reflected in four specific events, or roads, documented in the New Testament? Continue reading

To a Cancer Survivor

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A letter to a cancer survivor from one just diagnosed with lung cancer, June, 2014.

Hope you had a great time camping with the kids.  I know they look forward to those trips and time away from the daily routine is important.  Especially after all that you have been through.

I wanted to tell you about a recent experience I had. Very early one morning, after I finished my morning readings, I was recalling the words that Dr. Smith had said to me just two days before.  He told me I had lung cancer and it was advanced and “hot” and he would need to operate soon!  My wife, Joanne, and I were shocked!  I immediately thought about the worse that could happen.  The doctor detailed what the surgery would mean and the length of recovery.  We left that consultation feeling dazed and numb. Continue reading

The Haircut and Other Memories

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Recently I re-published an essay about my mother that I had written some two years before.  I had as hard time getting started with that essay because of my relationship with her was difficult on occasion, but then resistance faded away and there was my essay, my tribute to my mother.

On the other hand, my relationship with Dad was different.  Tucked away are many  memories of the two of us.  The time he built a sand box in the backyard and those times he would sit there with me playing cars, and roads, etc.  We would walk to the nearby hallow, and follow the trail down to the stream below. I was aware that people looked up to him and I know I was proud to be with him. Continue reading

Is It Me? Is It You?

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For more than ten years my church has struggled, mostly trying to catch up to and match those halcyon years of the past that we seem to hold out as the “golden age”, a time when everything seemed to be going right.  It is hard to realize that those specific years, and those specific elements are not coming back. What we can’t seem to get through our thick skulls is that those wonderful and creative years occurred because of US, the members of my congregation!

It was this same group that willingly served on committees, that participated with energy in “each one reach one” projects, that visited the sick and the homebound, that brainstormed fresh new ideas through Future Ministries, that warmly welcomed the visitor, that were instrumental in the forming of the Lutheran Cursillo movement in the state of Indiana, that aspired to become the mission center for our County, that aspired to be the “heart of town” and we did not view worshiping on Sunday as our only “obligation” as a Christian, each one of us saw a missional purpose throughout the week.

But, we have waited.  For however many years it has been.  We wait for a pastor who will work magic and lead us.  We wait for the inspiration to hit us.  We wait for something miraculous to happen.  We wait, and the years have gone by and our congregation has simply gotten older. Continue reading

Annoying Grace?

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Not long ago, Philip Gulley, author and theologian, spoke in our church on the topic of grace, God’s grace.  His talk was engaging, humourous, and filled with both current and ancient examples of grace in action.  While I will not quote specifics of Gulley’s talk, I did have a visceral reaction that caused me to consider a negative side of grace when applied to our self-centered society. Continue reading

10 Days in June

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Ten Days in June. Ten days, starting with the tragic news of the attack on the Bible Study group at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church, South Carolina and ending with nine funerals. Beyond this terrible tragedy, what touched me was the forgiveness and the grace shown by the families of the victims toward the young gunman.

That grace was reflected the following Friday at the funeral for pastor Rev. Clementa Pinckney. Aside from the fine and appropriate words of the eulogy by President Obama, I was struck, as I am sure many of you were, by the spontaneous singing of Amazing Grace, and how the words of that hymn were sung throughout the church, the community and the nation. Continue reading