Category: grief
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A rainy day grave and a call to ministry.
It has been twenty years exactly. Twenty years since Pastor David Stoner surprised me in Bible study and started a chain of events I never expected to end up here. As we sat in study, someone asked him about seminary (not me) and he was sharing information about it. At…
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The stillness of Holy Week
Sometimes we rush through life so much we forget to be still. The idea of stillness in Holy Week almost seems wrong….
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The Way of Grief
Grief sits on me like a beached whale, stifling, decaying, lost potential and life. Grief walks with me, now an old friend, well known; we know each others rhythms and habits. Grief stalks me, watching from close by and letting me know it is there, but never knowing when it…
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Cussing Christians
Exegesis. I was told in seminary first day not to use that word in public. It is the research and understanding of scripture but a no no in many ways to use those big words from seminary because they distance us. And today it brought me to a nifty if slightly…
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Grief is not emptiness- Sermon from August 14, 2014
The parable of feeding the 5,000 in Matthew 14: 13-21 is not only about vast numbers- which is a miracle. Or that he healed them, which is a miracle. Or the food that multiplied, which is also a miracle. This parable is also about the way we are healed and the promise…
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When Racial Tension Isn’t the Issue, but Contributes Nonetheless; What Shall I Say?
I cannot respond from any place other than my own. I recognize that I write from privilege and apologize for my ignorance or ineptitude, but silence is worse than the fault of trying imperfectly. The tragic and shocking death of a Virginia reporter and cameraman is rocking the nation this…
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Death Becomes Them
We all go there, that place where death puts us on auto pilot and our truest self seems to appear. In grief, we are ground down to the very nub of our nature and have no energy to be anything other than our most authentic self. Sometimes that is pretty darn…
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the dream of a garden memorial
I dreamt that I walked in soft green grass,the whisper of wind in the trees.The flowers all nodded their sweet helloas they welcomed the buzzing of bees. I dreamt of a tree whose leaves unfurledand gathered my sorrow withinAnd took it from me and gave me insteadpeace and innocent comfort…
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Waiting… hoping…
Grief. Death. Loss. They do funny things. Twisted things. I sit here with my grief in my lap,rocking it. I do not want to hold it,I want to let it go. But if I let it go, will I have let them go too? It feels like this,this bit of…
Mistress of Divinity 