Finding Your Soul by David Anderson
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The Wreath
Isaiah 61:3-11 “to give them a garland instead of ashes” The wreaths in our homes at Advent and Christmas are often only decorative—pretty. But there’s an ancient Nordic and Celtic tradition of making wreaths from wagon wheels. When the sun disappeared in winter, these sun-worshipping people had a beautiful way of wooing it, beckoning back…
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The Manger
Isaiah 7:10-14 “A woman is with child, and will bear a son,and will call him Emmanuel.” This is where we begin our Advent pilgrimage. A crib. The nativity scene is all there, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and their sheep—except for the Child. The manger is empty. Let it stay that way, unfilled, for now.…
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The Light We Cannot See
Once a few Decembers ago we were planning a holiday party and I decided it would perfect to light the weeping cherry tree in the front yard. The week of the party I left the office at one o’clock. I needed to deck these boughs while the light held, and I figured I needed at…
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My Father’s Thanksgiving Hymn
My father, as drawn by my nephew, Kasper Kavalaris I grew up in a Swedish Baptist Church in Yankton, South Dakota. My family sat in the second pew, one long enough to hold my two brothers, my four sisters, my parents, and me. We sang all the American gospel hymns—by Fannie Crosby, Charles Wesley, Ira…
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A War Is Raging. You Don’t Have To Choose Sides.
It’s hard to get people to kill other human beings—unless we can convince them that the enemy is not really human. The history of war shows us over and over the campaigns countries wage to dehumanize their enemies so that it will be possible to kill them without sadness, remorse or shame. Most of us…
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Amazing Grace & Astounding Gratitude
Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice of an echo. Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning. —Karl Barth The gratitude Barth speaks of is not happiness, certainly not elation. Maybe we feel grateful when something turns out perfectly, or our hard work is rewarded with some kind…
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The Day of The Dead, Mexico City
The funeral home in town has recently changed its name. It is now a “Life Celebration Home.” We are a death-avoidant culture. And the church is, often, little better. Many are deep-sixing funerals for “Life Celebrations.” The irony, the unintended sadness, is that the more we try to banish death, the more troubled about death…
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The Mended Wall
One day, not long after we moved into the Rectory at Saint Luke’s Parish, one of my daughter’s friends—a young driver—was backing out of the driveway late at night and hit the column on the end of the old stone wall that ran along the road. The end-column, about a foot higher than the…
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‘I Need To Ask God Why’
Almost no one is Israel is untouched by the horrific killings on that early morning, October 7th. Daniel Levy, a 34-year-old physician and father of two, was killed in his kibbutz near the Gaza border as he tried to minister to the wounded. Overcome with grief, with anger and rage at the wonton savagery, Daniel’s…