It is Christmas Eve, the night when God comes for us, comes in the only way we could receive God-with-us. If the infinite God is to reach us finite humans, there will have to be some translation, some accommodation. And all the work will have to be on God’s part. There is an affecting story, […]
Gratitude
Make Your Vessel Small
Thanksgiving is always about bounty, cornucopia, an overflowing with excess. Yet many of us are not feeling cornucopian these days. For some few at the top the bounty is flowing, but the rest of us are still struggling. We’re not feeling the Thanksgiving. In the gospels Jesus tells us, “Do not worry about your life, […]
GRATTITUDE (with two T’s)
This from a friend: I take the MetroNorth railroad from CT to NYC every day and have seen this billboard which just says, “GRATTITUDE” right above the Sin City Gentleman’s Club at 125th Street in Harlem for probably years now and have always wondered what it meant. Googled it this morning, and this is the […]
Life and Death Lunch
I love to eat. But make it fast. So, along with twenty-five of my colleagues at a recent clergy conference, I grumble when we are told that at lunch today we will begin with an exercise in mindful eating. We are to get our food from the buffet, sit and wait for everyone to begin […]
The Charlie Brown Burning Bush
I love to run in new places. At home I run the same loop—it takes me down to Long Island Sound and it’s beautiful, but I know it so well that I can almost run it blind. This morning I am running in Knoxville, Tennessee, where my father lives. I am a little stiff. My […]
The Last Family Fight
We just don’t argue anymore. I spent the weekend with my six brothers and sisters—along with all our husbands and wives, except for my brother-in-law Larry in Kuwait. We were in Knoxville for a late celebration of my father’s 94th birthday. And we didn’t argue or fight. Which is saying something in this family. Twenty […]