(Matthew 25:31-46) Many worship services around Thanksgiving will have a harvest theme. As the hymn says, “All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin …” And in these here parts, it had better be gathered by now or it’s going to freeze! Harvest is not something much of the country typically experiences. For urban and…
(Matthew 25:14-30) Most museums are all about success. At the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., you can see the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Apollo 11 Command Module, and Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit. You can even visit a studio model of the starship Enterprise, from the “Star Trek” television series. At the Louvre in Paris, you can look…
(Matthew 25:1-13) In Alexander McCall Smith’s book, Sunshine on Scotland Street (of the 44 Scotland Street series), he records an interesting conversation between Bertie, a precocious 7-year-old, and Olive, a sassy, impertinent 10-year-old girl who is evidently betrothed to the younger Bertie. Olive has just explained that she has booked the Gritti Palace in Italy for the post-wedding honeymoon…
(Matthew 22:15-22) “Fake it till you make it.” Perhaps you’ve heard the expression. People use it when they are so anxious to achieve a goal that they pretend to have real confidence and skills. By faking it for a while, they hope they will succeed. Starting a new job, a person might fake it until…
(Matthew 22:15-22) Letters. Diaries. Manuscripts of various kinds, written in ink on yellowed paper. All were composed by hand, during the Civil War. A textbook included photographs of some of these manuscripts. Professor Drew Gilpin Faust, an American historian, asked her college class what they thought of the book. One student said the photographs were…
(Philippians 4:1-9) Yelp, Wail, Hi-Lo, Whoop, Piercer, Thunder, Warble and Howler. Those may sound like a new generation of reindeer to pull Santa’s sleigh, but they’re different siren sounds available in police cars. Perhaps you’ve noticed that not all police sirens sound alike. You may have discovered this while hearing police cars on the road,…
(Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20) On the eve of Valentine’s Day 2023, a gunman opened fire on the campus of Michigan State University, killing three MSU students and critically wounding five others. In the aftermath, Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University emailed the student body to express solidarity with MSU students and faculty and to express remorse for the…
(Philippians 2:1-13) Anyone over a certain age – or under that age if they know their history – will recognize the phrase, “Follow the money.” It became famous back in the 1970s during the Watergate scandal. Two young reporters for The Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, were investigating the Nixon White House. They were having…
(Philippians 1:21-30) Effective altruism (EA) “is a project that aims to find the best ways to help others and put them into practice.” It’s not really an organization you give money to. It doesn’t have a catchy name like Bread for the World, Habitat for Humanity or Doctors Without Borders. It’s a concept that tries…
(Matthew 18:21-35) “We exist no longer than mayflies.” That’s what Su Shih, a Chinese scholar and poet, wrote in the year 1082. Maybe you have seen a mayfly, but not for long. They are insects with very short lifespans, averaging one to two days. Yet, though they have short lives, mayflies have been around forever.…