Maybe you have felt like you have been exiled this entire year.  Maybe because of upheaval in your work life or your retired life or your family life, you have been in a constant state of uncertainty, flux, and anxiety.  Perhaps you feel as if you’ve been away from the familiar, away from any kind… [Read More]

Some things just won’t get done.  Can we just admit that right at the beginning of this build-up to Christmas and save ourselves and our loved ones some strain, stress, argument, and worry?  Some things just won’t get ordered, or if ordered, they will come late or not at all because, well, we are in… [Read More]

There really should be a third option.  How many of you get frustrated when things appear to be either one way or another, with no middle way, no third possibility, no gray areas, no wiggle room—either THIS or THAT?  Remember those multiple-choice personality tests?  Remember trying to figure out if you were more “A” or… [Read More]

Then the kingdom of heaven, the coming of the Son of Man, will be like this… So begins our parable for this morning about five foolish bridesmaids and five wise bridesmaids.  The bridegroom is late; well, not exactly late—just not yet arrived.  He’s been expected—but he’s taking his time in getting to the bride’s home. … [Read More]

My children are learning how to recognize, add, subtract and even multiply large numbers – by the power of ten.  Each day, I overhear their teacher helping the students online to add a zero here or there, as they count and recount, read numbers and train their brains to recognize what is greater or less… [Read More]

Today, again, Jesus is in a debate with his religious brothers, the Pharisees.  The religious leaders and Jesus have been sparring for a while now.  However, we forget that Jesus was a practicing Jew and that the Pharisees, as depicted in the bible, were not a monolithic group.  There were different schools of religious thought… [Read More]

To talk about taxes on a Sunday, on a Sabbath, might seem strange.  But let’s dive in, shall we?  Do you remember the first time that you learned about taxes: what they were for, how they were calculated, and what entities collect them?  I don’t think that I really was very cognizant of taxes until… [Read More]

How do you handle conflict?  Do you tend to shy away from conflict?  Or do you tend to be he confrontational sort?  In your friendships and in your workplace, are you known as the “fixer” or the “mediator”?  When there is upheaval in your life, do you tend to have more conflicts or fewer?  What… [Read More]

What revives your soul?  When life has handed you a raw deal, when tempests rage around you and within you, when you are weary—oh so weary—what revives your soul?  Where is your respite?  Certainly, for many of us, living with the reality of Covid-19 has changed the way in which we revive and refresh ourselves,… [Read More]