Faith in the Cracks

Mr. Rogers Neighborhood premiered nationally in February 1968. The land of make believe was in turmoil as was the real world. For 30 years Fred Rogers helped children make sense of the world around them and he taught them ways to cope with changes. Being a neighbor was about caring for your community.  In this day and age we need to remember how to be neighbors. Luke 10 brings the parable of the G...

With all the storms that have torn through our country, with all the election cycle angst, with all the pressure of the everyday world, we need some unbridled joy.  We keep a friend's dog from time to time. Piper is a year old miniature golden doodle. She is a ball of energy and a source of unbridled joy. She quite literally hops like a baby goat because she gets so excited. She is always up...

Halloween in my childhood was for kids. Trick-or-treating with friends. Getting candy and homemade treats. Wearing plastic costumes. Along the way the candy companies have marketed well, costumes have become more elaborate and some folks have gotten bent out of shape over this holiday.  Halloween has its origins in ancient Celtic practices honoring the dead and the transition from life to death. C...

As I snuggled with one of my kids this week, they asked me who I was voting for in the election and why. As I gave my answer, I realized that much of what sways me as a voter is the character of the leader. I can disagree with people on policy, but if they are a leader who cares about people, I can still follow.  Throughout the Gospels, Jesus heals people and in doing so restores them to community...

Life feels overwhelming. Hurricanes Helene and Milton; West Coast Wildfires; Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine; an election cycle; climate change; gun violence; and the list goes on.  I was late getting this episode posted because of feeling overwhelmed with family and with career and with all the things.  Kate Bowler, New York Times best selling author co wrote a devotional book and in one devo...

Many Bible texts have been used against the LGBTQ+ community and against women. The creation account in Genesis 2 certainly has. But what if it has some different understandings than the way it has been used to subjugate people? What if we look at the Hebrew and seek the fuller understanding of some of the words that we have perhaps mistranslated into English? We find a story where God is acting a...

With all the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene, it is time to set aside political agendas and lift up our siblings across the Southeastern United States who are in need of help.  Organizations such as Presbyterian Disaster Assistance provide aid to local communities. Other organizations such as the Red Cross also can help in times of need.  People are without and will be without safe water, elect...

My spouse and a friend have taken a bucket list trip and I have been home with our twin elementary kids, our dog, and our friend's dog. I am exhausted. It is tiring to keep up with all the needs of the household and my job and getting everyone where they need to go. I have had help of friends in our circles. People who can take kids to an activity or pick them up. People who have held space f...

Grief is a human experience. To love deeply and to have that love change or disappear means we will feel that loss deeply too. It has been a year since my dad died. It has been 3 years since my mom. We all have loved ones die. But grief isn't just about the death of loved ones. Grief comes from job changes and other relationship changes. And a variety of experiences can bring up that which we...

Chaos swirls all around us. Another school shooting and ongoing wars. We have chaos in our personal lives as well. For me it is coming up on the one year anniversary of the death of my father. Chaos is part of our everyday life. The story of Noah and the flood is a story of chaos as God uncreates the world and begins again. We have tamed the story with our floating zoo images and it is time to rec...

Picher, Oklahoma. Treece, Kansas. It is likely you have never heard of these towns, yet both Picher and Treece along with others in the NE part of Oklahoma and the SE part of Kansas no longer exist, except in ruins. These ghost towns have been deserted because they are uninhabitable. Mining companies pulled the lead and zinc out and left behind a toxic dump. Flint, Michigan a decade after the wate...

In a world split between "us" and "them" how can we work to be us? We have my football team vs your football team; Coke vs Pepsi; political parties; and any number of divisions. In Matthew 25 we have the sheep and the goats. What would happen if we adopted an attitude of everyone were sheep? Everyone fed the hungry, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, etc. What if we were al...

In Ephesians 4: 11-16, Paul talks about equipping the saints for ministry and how we are to mature in faith as to not be blown to and fro by the winds of doctrine or through deceitful human actions. I think about this in the midst of the political season. How can we take hold of what we belief and not allow the tearing down of political ads to change us. How do we speak the truth in love with peop...

We are built to be in community. Amazing things can happen when we gather together. I talked about this with my congregation this morning, but I was reminded of the importance of gathering again at an event for a family gathering tonight. We saw friends we have not hung out with in a long while, and it was good to be with them again. A chance to share a meal with friends and to be together is refr...

The opening ceremonies in Paris brought with them an uproar. Some Christians were beyond upset over an artistic rendition on a foot bridge over the Seine that they thought was the Last Supper. They thought France was mocking God. Well, it wasn't the Last Supper but a depiction of Dionysus, the Greek God of wine. It was a party scene and many American Christians were offended.  They called for...

I am going to take a week off. In the almost 18 months of this podcast, I missed the week just after the death of my dad. This time, I am taking a week just to relax and recharge. Americans are notorious for leaving vacation time on the table and working way too hard. Our society applauds busy-ness, but it isn't actually in our best interest.  One of the commandments is to remember the Sabbat...

In the wake of the assassination attempt on Former President Donald Trump, we, as a society must stop the violence. We need to change our language and rhetoric. We need to find peaceful ways forward and common ground. Violence is becoming normalized in our society as more people seek to solve things through physical force or shooting people. It has to stop.  Support the show

Having watched fireworks this past week, I was drawn to playing Sousa marches. It made me think about music at Christmas and as I listened to a recital tonight, about various types of music and how music can speak in many different ways. Knowing the state of the world, the tensions in the world of politics, the divides in American culture, I wonder what the soundtrack would be. Would it be "T...

Last week was the first presidential debate for 2024. To say it was awful is an understatement. President Biden didn't look or sound good. Former President Trump failed to answer questions and offered lies (it has been fact checked). I turned it off after a while because they were talking about golf handicaps and honestly that has no place in this debate. I was frustrated with both men not an...

If you have not seen Disney's Inside Out or its latest release, Inside Out 2, go see it. No spoilers here. The movies are about the emotional growth of Riley. We meet Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear, and Aner in the first movie and more emotions come into play in the second. The team worked with psychologists to be as accurate as possible with how the mind works. It is all pretty amazing. In work...

Watching one of my kids compete in National Dance Competitions this weekend and the other  trying out for competitive soccer a week ago, we put a lot of pressure on our kids to win and to be the best. One thing that we like about the Dance Studio we are in as well as the Soccer Club we are part of is that the emphasis isn't on winning, but on doing your best. Have fun, learn, grow, and do you...

Today, several children and youth helped lead worship. We have been doing Vacation Bible School all week. Their energy, joy, wiggles and giggles are infectious and they are needed in the church. As church we need to embrace them as the current church, not as the future of the church. We need their creativity and joy to help us find new ays to be community and new ways to share the love of God with...

June is Pride Month. And it has already started, a conservative seminary classmate had a social media post that was decidedly anti-LGBTQIA+. There are many churches and pastors who believe homosexuality is a sin and use "clobber passages" as the scriptural basis. However, not every pastor or church agrees. Many of the passages used to claim homosexuality is wrong have been misinterpreted...

In conversation with a friend, we wondered about Memorial Day and if it was for all who have died or specifically for those in the military. We discovered it has been celebrated in some form since 1868 as Decoration Day to honor fallen Civil War soldiers. In 1971, the holiday was officially put on the final Monday of May and serves as a reminder to honor all those who have died in war in service t...

We just passed Pentecost. In the Christian church it marks 50 days after Easter. In the Jewish faith it is 50 days after Passover and also marks the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. In the book of Acts, we find the disciples gathered in Jerusalem and in chapter 2 a mighty wind blows and flames alight on their heads. They are able to speak in other languages that are heard and understood by many fro...