Sunday I preached about how, as parents, we want to make sure our kids acquire wisdom, and not just knowledge. Knowledge is good and all, but we all know people who are packed full of knowledge but have no idea how to use what they have to be kind to people, or to make the…
In Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life”, a father sings a song to his 50 plus children crowded around their living room. “Because every sperm is sacred Every sperm is great If a sperm is wasted God gets quite irate” When Monty Python performed the song, I’m quite confident they didn’t intend for anyone to hear…
I started reading Harper Lee’s newly released (if not newly written) novel, Go Set A Watchman, this morning. I just finished it this afternoon. It has been a long while since I started a book and couldn’t put it down, for what that’s worth. It’s funny and charming. Many of the characters I loved in…
I’m doing some genealogical research about my birth family and I found my maternal grandmother’s birth certificate application that her parents filled out when she was born in 1899. The seventh question asked about her was this: “Legitimate or Illegitimate” I can’t quite fully describe how offended I am by that question. When I read…
Radiolab is one of my favorite shows on public radio right now. I was listening to one of their podcasted episodes the other day while out hiking and it about stopped me in my tracks. The episode is called Tell-Tale Hearts. And the Oliver Sachs interview is as good as all of his interviews are.…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho on July 5, 2015 Mark 6:1-13 It is hard to go home again, isn’t it? Jesus has already experienced this in Mark’s gospel. A few chapters ago, after people accused him of being possessed by the Devil… “A crowd was sitting around him; and they…
It is an odd relationship–the way ministers often act as agents of the state to sign civil marriage licenses. We can’t sign any other documents on behalf of the state. But hundreds of years ago, when marriages all (mostly) took place in churches, we entrenched the two acts–the act of the church in joining people…
Tonight in worship, we wrote notes to Emanuel AME Zion Church in Charleston. Here is the letter we signed and sent: Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ; We offer our sympathies and our prayers as you mourn the deaths of nine members of your family and as you recover from the violation of the safety…
Presidential candidate and former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, wrote a book in 1995 that included a chapter called, “The Restoration of Shame”. He seems to believe that if we spent more time shaming people, we would have a better society. “One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more…
Yesterday in worship I experienced one of those moments that was both amazingly wonderful and kind of awkward at the same time. Rev Vincent Lachina, the Chaplain for Planned Parenthood of the Northwest, and Mistie Tolman, the Regional Field Organizer for Planned Parenthood Votes, based in Boise, presented me with an award. From their website:…
Glass Overflowing 