This is called “The Best Poem in the World,” which isn’t true. But it is the best doggerel in the world. Read it and see if you don’t agree. The Best Poem in the World I was shocked, confused, bewildered as I entered Heaven’s door, Not by the beauty of it all, by the lights or […]
Love
Seeing Emily
On Thursday afternoon at 3:30 in a small hospital room in the Bronx, I opened my Prayer Book and prayed “Ministration at the Time of Death.” It broke my heart to turn to page 462. But Gay was dying before our eyes, and now was the Time. On Wednesday afternoon—just the day before—I had sat […]
All Grace All the Time
“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, […]
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 […]