After reading again today’s challenging lectionary passage, I am reminded of a song that the band R.E.M. released in 1987, “It is the End of the World as We Know It.”  The song was intended to be a kind of stream of consciousness, but some of the lines from the song sound eerily familiar and… [Read More]

Do you tend to view life from the basement or the balcony? In the 1989 film, Dead Poet’s Society, the teacher, played by actor Robin Williams, teaches literature to a group of private school students.  One day, during class, he jumps up on top of his teacher’s desk to make a point to his students…. [Read More]

When my husband was dying, while in the midst of nurse visits, bandage and dressing changes, and extremely heightened tension, I would make my husband promise that he would come back and speak with me after he died.  I was irrationally insistent about this, as one can be irrationally insistent when one is determined to… [Read More]

I have been noticing cars lately.  It’s to be expected when one is car shopping.  Suddenly you start noticing the color, make, model, and year of every car advertisement and every vehicle that passes by you on the highway.  But I also tended to notice cars before the whole car shopping thing started.   Mostly it… [Read More]

You are not your illness. You are not your disability. It can be hard to remember this, especially when cancer comes calling, or the insurance company sends you a statement regarding your deductible, or the nurse manager calls to “check in,” or when you have to wear a mask or use a walker or get… [Read More]

They arrive in my mailbox.  Those slick and shiny catalogs of clothes, or new-fangled, wacky contraptions, or things-everyone-simply-must have.  Even when I give notice that I don’t want the extra mail, they still come—usually because I have forgotten to check off the “do not send” box, or I have inadvertently clicked where I should not… [Read More]

Hindsight is 20/20.  At least, that is what the saying says, and we will probably be hearing a lot more of this phrase as we approach year 2020, no matter what our actual vision acuity may be.  But is hindsight really 20/20?  Matthew Dicks, a blogger, thinks we should completely stop using the phrase.  We,… [Read More]

What is precious to you?  What is lost to you?  These two questions intently gaze at us from our lives this morning and this scripture from Luke.  The leaders are grumbling.  These are religious leaders and scholars.  The text names the Pharisees, but we know from last week’s story that Luke often pits the Pharisees… [Read More]

The story seems straightforward.  Jesus arrives at a leader’s house and takes notice of the way in which people seat themselves—the inner and outer circles of the gathering, the way in which people position themselves, and vying for attention, status, and proximity to the host.  It’s the Sabbath and he’s been invited which may mean… [Read More]