Category Archives: Holy Days

April 1, 2015 · 3:51 pm

God Speaks

Daffodils  The attached picture is a scene from my morning walk from parking lot to office during these early days of Spring.  It was taken today, during Holy Week, as we make the annual pilgrimage with Jesus through the events of his passion.  It captures both the essence of where this week is headed – the hope and promise of new life; and reveals the residual holdings on of the what the next few days of the week bespeak – death, decay.

Notice the crumpled leaves hidden in recesses and alcoves of building and landscape that have clung through the winter. It’s so hard to let go of that which mires us down in the stuff of our lives and selves.  It’s always hanging on, around the edges, in the crevasses and the shadows – like a dead leaf that just won’t give in and blow away. Continue reading →

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February 21, 2015 · 8:47 am

Leadership and Lent

As of this past Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) we have officially entered into the spiritual season of Lent. You may or may not come from a faith or personal tradition that observes Lent, but let me invite you to think about the season in relationship to the ways and places where you are asked to provide leadership.

Lent, a word derived from an old Anglo-Saxon term “lencten” means “spring” – a time of lengthening of days. Most of us are probably ready to see the tangible signs of spring about now as we are mired in the grip of winter.

In the church we have patterned our Lenten observances after the 40 days of temptation Jesus faced in the wilderness following his baptism. Through a period of fasting and prayer we see Jesus facing the temptations of the Evil One to live and lead in a way that is inconsistent with his identity and God’s will. Jesus manages his response to Satan through his faith, his knowledge and application of the Scriptures, and the strength he finds in communion with God. Continue reading →

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December 30, 2014 · 10:35 am

Ringing in the New Year

The world has changed a lot since I was a kid. It’s the new year, and specifically “New Years” that makes me think of this. A family tradition of several years running in my growing up days was to attend the New Year’s Eve Watch Service at church. What’s that? It’s where you gather with folks at church to “watch” the new year come in.

Our celebrations were often filled with food, games and conversation in the church basement. I faintly remember one year when Father Time and Baby New Year made an appearance in some kind of dramatic presentation. I think this was imprinted on me as some adult relative played the part of Baby New Year, clad in nothing but a cloth diaper!

As the hands on the clock crept ever closer to midnight Continue reading →

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December 19, 2014 · 4:17 pm

The Electric Color Wheel Christmas Tree

The Electric Color Wheel Christmas Tree

When I was a kid Christmas night meant a trip to my maternal Grandpa’s home for the Cunningham Christmas. A day that usually began well before the sun came up was extended to well after dusk with food, games and gifts as relatives gathered in the farmhouse Grandpa called home.

I had been in this house many times and often our visits took place in the combination dining and living room. Grandpa dwelt there, where his easy chair sat; the television on the opposite wall, a dining table to one side, with a stairway to the upper floor tucked away in the room’s corner. It was in this space that we visited, ate, and shared time with Grandpa – here, and outdoors on the farm itself. But not on Christmas! No, on Christmas we were fancy. This meant we went into the home’s front room, a room largely unknown to my siblings, cousins and I, and gathered round Grandpa’s spectacular aluminum Christmas tree. Continue reading →

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December 4, 2014 · 2:08 pm

Lo, Woe, Go . . . a Response of Advent

During these early days of Advent, as Thanksgiving has given way to Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, ushering in the secular season of sales and anxious economic forecasts; one is left to ponder another response. Rather than unleash the credit or debit card, joining the throngs of holiday consumers, why not recover a little of the spiritual side of the season?

This season of waiting, expecting and hoping is pregnant with promise. It draws us to the nativity story and its fascinating cast of characters. Among them we find the shepherds, the true working men of this tale. They, like the other characters, have a story to tell, and a particular angle from which to tell it. Do you remember the shepherds? These character actors are discovered in Luke 2 between verses 8 and 20. A description of their brief foray unto the Nativity stage might be summarized in the words “lo”, “woe” and “go”.

Having drawn our attention to these shepherds abiding, Luke, Continue reading →

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