Pastoral
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Image in Poem and Preaching
Let the image sing loud, lean into the images to their breaking point, and then through the emotions in the image bring forth the meaning. Continue reading
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The Word to the People – A Poem
To make it plain, ironed and pressedGround and brewed, poured and served. Prayed through, pained through, caught throughThe tide of mined eternity, the incarnation When the mine came in form of the minerAnd spoke in words of gold: prophet and poetSalesman and scholarWatchman and woe-workerSoldier and scribe. To disturb and pruneDress and bind the wounds. Halt the hard Continue reading
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The Parish- A Sonnet
Into the deep, the waves, the weep, the homes The farm, the soul, and time, and fear, the known And unknown. Few, we traverse winter’d wildsValleys shadowed by death and devil and direDespair. Arctic explorers encased in, Capsized often by our own woes, our sins Yet still we go, no expertise nor ease But dressed in place, in time, in Continue reading
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Harvest
Bronze, shorn, past-ripe, dustCovers faces, boots, barnsThe roadside sumac, lilac late blooming,Lungs and hearts as a sign of blessing.The scrabbled landscape sighsIn relief. The corn had weighedIt down, as each road tilted toward thePull of corn-stalk and hay bale. It had grownTo swallow car, road, farm, mind, As September waned and withered. And now I see the Continue reading
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The Paradox of Maundy Thursday
Thursday of holy week is traditionally known as Maundy Thursday. “Maundy” comes from the Latin translation of John 13:34: “Mandatum novum do vobis…”, “a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (ESV). As Jesus said this, if you remember, he bowed down Continue reading
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Fig Tuesday
Today in the Christian calendar is “Fig Tuesday”, traditionally a day when we remember Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree (Matt 21:18-22). If you remember the story, Jesus was walking from Bethany and came across a fig tree. He was hungry, and hoped to find a fig to munch on, but instead he found nothing Continue reading
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God in a Manger
John 1:1-18 Sometimes the images of Christmas are too familiar to us. We see the story reenacted year after year: Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus, with their attendants, stable-mates, and visitors. We theorize and imagine who and what would be there. Of all the images we use, one almost always stays the same: the Continue reading
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The King Comes in Kindness
Isaiah 42 Justice is a loaded word. Get it on your side, and you’ve won the argument. In the Bible, the word “justice” is mis-pat, and it simply means judgment. It is the quality of kings and captains, fathers and friends, in which they judge issues, disputes, and even their daily life against the law of God. Continue reading
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The Wedding Procession of the King
Psalm 45 There’s nothing quite like a wedding. Look far and wide, and in almost every culture you’ll find traditions, celebrations, and rituals signaling when two people leave their father and mother and become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). The Bible is full of weddings, too. The Song of Solomon is all about two lovers and Continue reading
Revival and Renewal 