We don’t tend to think of the medieval time in Europe as a high water mark of feminism, but female monastics accomplished amazing feats during that time period. Catherine of Siena is one of those female monastics who lived in the later part of the 14th century in a plague-ravaged part of Italy. Despite the patriarchal culture in which she lived, she left behind a collection of accomplishments that would have been amazing for a woman of our day. Unlike many of the other female mystics of the medieval time period, like Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena didn’t live a cloistered life. She was ..read more

I made this Facebook post this morning:  "In a few hours I will preach on John 15: 1-8, and instead of focusing on fruit and the fire that non-producing branches face, I will preach on the idea of abiding with Jesus, the true vine. Abide is a word that the writer of the Gospel of John uses frequently, and perhaps even more than we thought. The Greek word often gets translated as "believe," but "abide" might be the truer translation. How would our approach to faith change if we had heard "Abide in me" instead of "Believe in me" through the ages?" I am thinking of all the scraggly plants I ..read more

 When we were experimenting with glass etching cream on Thursday, my spouse wanted me to look up the Latin phrase "Baptismo Sum."  We've both been taught that Martin Luther used it as he washed each morning, saying "I am baptized" in Latin so that he remembered this essential truth each day. So I Googled it and said, "Look, there's my poem."  It was published in Sojourners in 2005, and I am so delighted that it comes up first or second in a search for the Latin word.  True to Google form lately, I couldn't find out what I wanted to know.  But instead of my us ..read more

This week-end I will help lead a funeral for my mom's cousin, Bob Hughes.  I've been part of the planning of it, and soon I need to type some final edits into the document. I could have led this funeral even if I didn't have the SAM position, but I did check in with my Synod supervisor, just to make sure I was on solid ground.  My cousin was a beloved part of the community of Faith Lutheran in Bristol, TN; several of the members were children in the church with him, and his mom and dad, Martha and Haskell, were deeply involved members until their deaths. It's been interesting to plan ..read more

Today is the feast day of Saint Mark. Looking back through my blog posts, I'm surprised to find out that I haven't written much about this feast day.  It does often fall in a part of the month where I'm more likely to be at the Create in Me retreat.  But it's also because it's hard to know who the real Saint Mark was.  So many Marks, so hard to know for sure who did what. Was he the author of the Gospel of Mark? The one who brought water to the house where the last supper took place? That strange naked man in the Crucifixion narrative? It's hard to say. We do give him credit f ..read more

The readings for Sunday, April 28, 2024: First Reading: Acts 8:26-40 Psalm: Psalm 22:24-30 (Psalm 22:25-31 NRSV) Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-21 Gospel: John 15:1-8 The Gospel of John includes several "I am" stories, like the one we find in the Gospel for this week. Unlike the idea of Jesus as shepherd, which might be unfamiliar to those of us who live so far away from farms, the idea of Jesus as the vine, and believers as the branches isn't that hard for most of us to grasp. Most of us have watched plants grow, and we understand that one branch of the plant won't do well if we separate it ..read more

 As is usual on a Tuesday or a Thursday, I have less time to write.  Soon I need to get ready to head down the mountain to Spartanburg Methodist College--but today is the last day of face to face classes for me this semester. Yesterday, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I knew that the tile crew would return.  I knew that I had plenty of tasks to do at my desk, and my spouse has a wide variety of home repair tasks to choose from each day.  I sat at my desk and got to work. I got grading done and e-mails done and a bit of writing revision, the tinkering just before a pape ..read more

 My day is quickly filling up as the various ends of semesters all come into sight.  But let me record a moment from yesterday's worship service at Faith Lutheran that went really well. Yesterday's Gospel was John 10:  11-18, which talks about the sheep hearing the shepherd's voice.  For the youth sermon, I wanted to demonstrate how hard it can be to hear individual voices when there's so much noise, and how hard it can be to hear God's voice in the midst of all the noise. Before the service started, I wrote statements on paper slips, like "Hey, sheep, come here and I'll ma ..read more

I'm really pleased with how I ended my sermon that I will preach in a few hours.  The text is John 10:  11-18, a text which meditates on shepherds, sheep, and what the shepherd does that the hired hand doesn't.  Here's the ending: Let’s use the language of the 23rd Psalm as we analyze whether or not we’re hearing the Shepherd’s voice. Are we being called to green pastures and calm water? Does our cup run over? Are our souls restored? Once we determine that we’re hearing God’s voice, hopefully it will be easier to follow our Good Shepherd along the right pathways. And when we d ..read more

 Two years ago, I was part of a seminary class that studied Jericho Brown's duplexes.  As part of my final project, I wrote some duplexes of my own.  I went through my poetry notebooks looking for lines that didn't make it into a poem, and I created a Word document of them.  I ended up with lots of abandoned lines in a big document, and I return to the document periodically when I need inspiration. This week, I used those lines in a different way.  I needed something different to do with my English 100 class.  I decided to celebrate National Poetry Month with a co ..read more