Maria had never left the four block radius in Nashville where she had been born.  Her father was a pimp and a drug dealer and her mother was an addict and prostitute.  She was in her mid-twenties but wasn’t sure of her exact age.  She had gone to elementary school and could read and write […]

Old age and hardship had deteriorated what was once a strong and capable body.  And now her mind was following suit.  The old woman still had more good days than bad when it came to her mental function, but she knew that soon that would no longer be true.  She might have been, probably should […]

This Christmas the Alabama Shakespeare Festival produced The Best Christmas Pageant Ever as one of its offerings.  It’s a cute play about a church Christmas pageant in which an unchurched family of juvenile delinquents—known as the Herdman children—ends up with all the lead roles—Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, and Harold the angel (you know Harold, […]

John’s Gospel is obviously different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  Those Gospels, which we know as the Synoptic Gospels, are story-telling Gospels.  They proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ by describing his life and ministry in biographical terms—Jesus went to this place, he had this experience, he interacted with this person, he said these […]

Last week we heard John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness words like “Repent!” and “You brood of vipers!”  Words of judgment and condemnation for a people who had fallen away from the Lord; a people who had lost their hope, allowed their religious practices to become a prison instead of broadening their freedom, […]

The cycles or rhythms of the natural world help us to orient to time, help us to take comfort in their continuity, and offer us a peaceful presence in which to engage our hope.  As one season passes into another, we too are brought along with the world finding ourselves growing into maturity and change.  […]