“I was playing golf with a friend,” the man said to me yesterday. “And he said—it must’ve been at the 14th hole, I think—he said, ‘John, do you believe in hell?” He put the club down and asked why such a question. The friend explained that his daughter had been blessed with her first baby, […]
Love
You Are Chosen
One of my least favorite childhood memories is playing baseball. The neighborhood kids would gather on Saturday morning to play baseball. And then the dreaded part. Choosing up sides. There would be two captains—and who chose these people? I guess we all knew who the best players were, and they couldn’t be on the same […]
The Only Way Into the Human Heart
There is an old Jewish story about the young pupil who asks the respected rabbi a question about that well-known passage in Deuteronomy 6:6. “And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart.” “Why is it this way?” the pupil asks. “Why are we told to put these words upon […]
Doug’s Comet
On Saturday I preached the funeral of a great man. Doug McArthur was the Treasurer of Trinity Church in Solebury, Pennsylvania, where I was privileged to minister for eleven years. As I reflected on why Doug had been such a powerful influence in my life, I realized that he was a grand father. He […]
The Cock Crows
At the heart of the “Greatest Story Ever Told” is a betrayal. No one would call their child Judas. The name is slimed with centuries of condemnation: the lily-livered turncoat who betrayed an innocent man for thirty pieces of silver. We might understand how the crowd could turn on Jesus, but how could someone from […]
The Father I Want to Become
This is me and my father. It looks like he is sitting in my lap, but actually he is sitting on a chair, and I am kneeling beside him. We were all of us there, my six brothers and sisters, for his 93rd birthday. We ordered pizza (it’s the birthday dinner he chooses every […]
A Choice
Jeff Schlachtenhaufen is a big-time icon for me these days. His parents are parishioners of mine, and when Jeff developed pancreatic cancer in October I got to know Jeff—though I’ve never met him in person. He lives in Chicago with his wife Susie and their four children. Jeff has a Caring Bridge website—a blog that […]
Every Parent Should be a Conservative and a Liberal
My father calls himself a conservative. In 1964 he voted for Barry Goldwater, and these days his car sports a big blue bumper sticker: CAIN. He is a born-again Christian who believes in the Bible and doesn’t believe in evolution. He’s a teetotaler. But I have to say, at nearly 93 my father is also […]