In 7th grade, my friend Andy and I were looking down from the top of the football stadium seats as the 8th and 9th grade cheerleaders with their pompoms and clean white shirts were passing below. A split second before they disappeared into the stadium, I poured out part of the Coca-Cola in my hand and rushed back to sit down in the bleachers, … [Read more...]
The Most Important Question
What is the most important question of human existence? If we have not yet discovered this, then we can be assured that we are not very far along toward answering the question. My six-year-old grandson Collin suffers from severe asthma. When he heard that asthma was a condition that made people more vulnerable to the COVID virus he was worried. … [Read more...]
What Will You Give Me If I Betray Him?
Everybody has their price. Everybody. Some forty years ago Bruce Metzger, my New Testament Seminary professor, quietly made a profound statement in class one day, the kind that finds a permanent resting place in the mind because it sheds light on an unfathomable mystery that remains obscure, yet keeps on tugging at the heart’s hidden longing. “No … [Read more...]
Mt Athos Needs Our Help
This is a letter I recently received from the Friends of Mt Athos regarding recent events that have left the small monastic republic vulnerable in a new way. They need our help and here is a way we can offer it. Letter From the Membership Chairman of the Friends of Mount Athos in the Americas Dear Friends, I hope you all had a chance to see the … [Read more...]
Love the Little Things
Fifty years ago, On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard under the direction of President Nixon, killed four unarmed Kent State students on campus. This was emblematic of a decade of disillusionment ignited by the assassination of President Kennedy, civil rights struggles, and the heart-rending murders of Martin Luther King, Jr, and Bobby Kennedy. … [Read more...]
No Humpty Dumpty Theology
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty famously said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” [1] In some ways our post-modern, fake news-attributing culture is very familiar with this perspective. It seems natural and even desirable to “create your own reality” and then disparage anyone who objects … [Read more...]
My God, My God, Why have we abandoned Thee?
Today I sat in one of my favorite spots in the middle of my walk around Cooper Creek. It's a stone picnic table sheltered under some tall pine trees overlooking the lake. Carolina Tarheel sky blue above with a whisp of clouds over the green earth and the undulating brown waters of the lake. Light infuses everything and as I collect my attention … [Read more...]
COVID and Communion
It is possible after receiving Holy Communion that I could be hit by a car and killed a few minutes later. Or be infected with a virus within minutes of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. What about minutes before, in the act of Communion itself? Does Holy Communion exempt us from all infections, sickness, suffering and death? No. Does … [Read more...]
Sin and Grace Dwell Together In Us All
Today we enter the beginning of preparation for Lent called the Triodion which begins the tenth week before Pascha on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee and ends with the Midnight Office on Holy Saturday. Triodion is from the Greek word Τριῴδιον, which means “three odes.” The season derives its the name from the Liturgical book which … [Read more...]
Wisdom, Stand Aright!
As did the very first Christians, we respond to Christ’s life-bearing word born in our hearts with gratefulness and love. We soon discover just as they did, that this joyful beginning involves a life-long maturation in response to a relationship that needs to be continually renewed and will be tested in a variety of ways, building greater … [Read more...]
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