Singing Along the Journey
Thoughts about faith and wholeness set to the soundtrack of life

Wherever two or more are gathered…

I read that quotation again this morning as I read Pastor Amy's amazing article about the importance of community in the new book Gathering Together:  Baptists at Work in Worship, but the truth is, I have been thinking about it for weeks and in particular these last few days.  Because right now I am in a unique position to testify to the power of  a community of worship. You see, on Sunday, as I attended what will be my last worship service for a while, people of my community gathered around me and sang songs and prayed over me and laid hands upon me and hugged me.  They cried with…
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Today was a little easier…

Today was a little easier...I'm not talking about how I feel in relation to upcoming events, but how I feel about past ones.  Today is, after all, 9/11.  And today was just a little easier. Maybe it is the fact that my attention is focused on next week; maybe it was simply the passage of time.  But today, as I drove past the Pentagon shortly after 9 am, as I returned from morning prayer at school, it was just a little easier.  Yes, I still turned my eyes sharply to the heavens as a plane flew overhead in the landing pattern headed toward Reagan International Airport.  Yes, I probably still…
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The one I didn’t want to write…

I am finally sitting down to write the entry that I have been postponing for the past three months (really, has it been three?).  Last year at this time, I was so excited, preparing for the great adventure ahead of me called seminary.  And the year and the people and the classes lived up to every expectation and more.  That first great year of transformation and learning ended on what I believed would be a high note -- I closed my books and went on an amazing pilgrimage to the Holy Land (you can read about those adventures on my other blog, www.sevierlybaptist.com). The trip was indeed everything that I…
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A Tale of the Other (Part 2)…

Yesterday we wrapped up our sermon series on the "Men of Judges" with a most amazing talk by our beloved Allyson Robinson.  If you were not there, you should read it/listen to it here, because you will never hear a more eloquent and to the point summation of why we as Christians have an obligation to study and know all the stories of the Bible, including ones as awful as that of the Benjamanite bachelors in Judges 19. And even though I put down the book of Judges a week ago to move on to other studies, some thoughts left over my own storytelling have remained.  You see, one of…
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A Tale of the Other

So today we continue talking about the men of Judges and we ponder the question: why should we read these stories and what might they say to us today. We've heard about Gideon, Samson, Ehud and Jephtha…but you might have noticed that it is getting harder and harder to talk about the “men of Judges” without talking about “the women” around them…Samson AND Dalila, Jephtha AND his daughter… My assignment for today is to talk about Sisera—Sisera, who is not a Judge, not even an Israelite.  Sisera was the enemy. Sisera was the oppressor.  Sisera was an outsider. Sisera was the loser.  Sisera gets murdered.  By a woman. There are…
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Just what do we mean by…faith

Lately, I have had a lot of time and motivation to think about the meaning of the word "faith"...in addition to my studies last year about faith development and the paper I'm trying to gear up to write,  I had a chance to facilitate our summer Sunday school class, leading them through a discussion of that chapter in Marcus Borg's Speaking Christian, not to mention other more personal reasons to continue my reflections.  It seems to be the word of the moment . So, in preparation for my upcoming paper on the topic of faith development and adult learning styles, I pulled out some of the things I wrote last…
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What I’ve Learned So Far, Part 4: Matthew 7:3-5

I'm wrapping up a very compact two week summer term at seminary and as I pause to take stock of my learning and formation to date, and, in particular, what I've gathered and incorporated these past two weeks, I cannot help but hear over and over some wise words my mother stole from Matthew 7:3-5-- 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, b ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye,…
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A different perspective…

Most of my activities lately have been devoted to changing my perspective.  I am not always been conscious of that purpose when I start out but as with most things that purpose is always clear in hindsight.  That purpose applies especially to my studies over the last year and to all of my travels too.  There is little that is as perspective-altering as a trip to Israel for a person of professed Christian faith. So imagine my surprise (or was it frustration?) when I realized that even the things I'm choosing for enjoyment lately fall into the perspective challenging category.  After years of waiting, my old friend, composer Mark Adamo,…
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My Dad, Jack…

With all the reminders of Father's Day swirling around, it occurred to me that while I have written about my mother in this forum, I have rarely if ever mentioned my father, Jack.  There are a lot of reasons for that, too many to share.  But I think that this Father's Day it might just be time to talk about him. I have a love-hate relationship with these so-called holidays, Mother's Day and Father's Day.  After all, I grew up in the town where Hallmark was born so I have an extra special opinion about these market-originated celebrations.  Did you realize that Father's Day has only been an "official" holiday…
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The bus will always be a part of me…

Saturday morning began our long journey from the Holy Land back to the places where we all began this journey, and, true to the spirit of the trip, we made use of every available moment that remained to us before we boarded our flight to the U.S.  We began the day  by visiting the Herodium, the tomb Herod built for himself on his self-made mountain, then saw the model version of Jerusalem and had a too-short visit to the amazing Israeli Museum,  a stop at the Garden Tomb and a closing communion service, followed by a visit to the Tomb of Lazarus in Bethany, a walk along the Mediterranean at…
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