Family Praying Together, by Jose Blanco (1932-2008), Filipino Folk Artist —————————- (…continued) The solution to the problem of ‘dead ritual’ is to find ways to put meaning back into the ‘traditional rites.’ We need not advocate the continuation of a dead habit, but the solution must not be to have no ritual at […]
2549) Just a Ritual? (part two of three) Read More »
One of the big problems Jesus was always up against in his ministry was a religion that, in many ways, had lost its spirit. Many of the Jews at that time were very meticulous about the proper rituals and going through all the right motions on the outside, but on the inside they were spiritually dead. There
2548) Just a Ritual? (part one of three) Read More »
A while back an old friend told me he didn’t go to church anymore. He said, “It’s the same old thing: ‘things are bad now,’ the preacher always says, ‘but someday Jesus will return and then everything will be better.’ I’ve heard it all before.” My friend knows I am
2546) The Same Old Thing Read More »
KYRIE ELEISON (Latin), ‘Lord, Have Mercy’ ——————— (…continued) The final phrase of this simple prayer is, “Lord, have mercy.” Mercy is a wonderful word. It is a word that one who is weak and needs help will use in asking for assistance from one who is stronger and able to help. This is a
2545) A Simple Way to Pray (part three of three) Read More »
By William Willimon, The Last Word, Abingdon Press, 2000, pages 78-80. Last year, on a bright summer Sunday, we worshiped with a little congregation in a fine old suburb of Berlin. The beautiful old church was only a few blocks from the Wannsee House where, just sixty years earlier, leaders of the Third Reich met
2541) Getting Serious About God Read More »
By Fred Craddock (1928-2015), Craddock Stories, ed. by Mike Graves and Richard F. Ward, 2001, Chalice Press, pages 132. —————————— The young woman, twenty-eight years old, at St. Mark’s church in Atlanta, said to me, “This is the first time I was ever in a church.” “Really?” I said. “Yeah.”
2539) First Time in Church Read More »
The father of a man in my previous parish had immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900’s. After the Russian Revolution his father lost contact with his brothers that still lived in what had then become the Soviet Union. In the 1980’s communication with and travel to the Soviet Union became easier.
2538) Church Music Read More »
By John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America (Penguin Books, 1962), 77-79. Sunday morning, in a Vermont town… I looked for a church to attend. Several I eliminated for reasons I do not now remember, but on seeing a John Knox church I drove into a side street and parked… I took
2536) A Religion Designed to Last Read More »
The song In the Good Old Summertime has been a favorite ever since it came out as a big hit in 1902. Everyone can probably hum a few bars of the tune, and the phrase ‘good old summertime’ has become a cliché. But most people do not know most of the words. It is
2535) In the Good Old Summertime Read More »
(…continued from #2532) Let’s apply this (from part one) to another setting. Imagine yourself at the doctor’s office. Your doctor is a good doctor, but a rather bland and boring person. He never smiles, doesn’t have time for a joke, and he always has the same dull look on his face. One day
2534) Jay Leno and Me (part two of two) Read More »
