Genuine, untarnished, long-lasting living begins and is sustained when we know without a doubt that we can try, fail, try, fail, try, fail…and that God accepts and understands us. from Being Me
00047 – Try, Fail, Try…
read more
00045 – Practicing Dying
When I was a medical school professor, I invited my students to view their own experiences of sickness and medical care as a way to empathize with their patients’ experiences. Like them, we can prepare for our dying by “practicing” dying in response to situations of...
00043 – Being Christian Involves Relationship
I no longer see the Christian life as being primarily about believing. The Christian life is about entering into a relationship with that to which the Christian points, which may be spoken of as God, the risen living Christ, or the Spirit. And a Christian is one who...
00041 – Memory and Eucharist
Meals are the settings in which families rehearse their stories, repeatedly trading tales and histories, realizing afresh what it means to be a Webber, a Clapp, or whomever. Without memory there is no identity or vision and so no personhood. The Eucharist is the...
00039 – Is God Calling You?
The time of wondering whether you’ve truly been called to the ministry is over. The challenge is to know when God is calling and not the voice or ego or the expectations of family and friends. from commencement address to Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond...
00037 – God Being Gracious Unto You
The Lord bless you and keep you.The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May God give you grace never to sell yourself short.Grace to risk something big for something good.Grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but...
00034 – Baptism Gets You Wet!
Christianity is about water: “Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” It’s about baptism, for God’s sake. It’s about full immersion, about falling into something elemental and wet. Most of what we do in worldly life is geared toward our staying dry, looking...
00033 – Baptism in Community
The community of Christ is called and equipped in baptism. In baptism we are taught to find our strength in God and God’s people rather than ourselves. We are prepared for the shock of moral transformation by a cleansing, cold bath. We are born, drowned, adopted,...
00029 – Mary and the Divine Mystery
Mary made her womb available for a holy conception and birth. She surrendered to the mysterious, divine working of God, knowing that the holy child within her would change the world. May we, too, open our minds, hearts, and bodies to the mysterious working of God , so...
00028 – Worship: A Gift and An Experience
Worship is a gift, a gift from God that allows us to achieve our full potential as persons, and a gift to God that acknowledges God as Creator and Redeemer. Without gifts at its center, worship does not occur. God’s people gather for worship not so much to receive a...