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Linoleum Tables – Chapter Finished
I’m in a hotel room about to head down to a conference on rural life and resilience in North Carolina. I haven’t written in 11 days. I worked through that in journaling and contemplation. I think it was imposter syndrome and anxiety of completing something and sending it into the world (the anxiety of releasing […]
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Sanctified Gossip
The story of the woman at the well from John Chapter 4 is a story I used to find annoying. I think, because it was an overdone story about Jesus being Jesus. It gets overused as a salvation story for a way of life that is no longer feels like an issue. Women, in general, […]
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Death and Deviled Eggs
A few years ago, I was on my way to a funeral. An in person, non-masking, church member funeral with a receiving of friends, a service, and committal. Funerals remind me of funerals, the same way this Christmas will remind you of last Christmas. So many of the practices are the same. At this funeral, […]
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A Can of Soup
My wife’s Valentine’s Day gift to me was a trip to our local art museum. They just opened an exhibit titled “The Works of Warhol.” For years, Andy Warhol has been my favorite artist. If I am ever in a city and they have an art museum, I always check to see if they have […]
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Holy Week Fragments: Tuesday
Click Here for Today’s Scripture: John 12:20-36 Today’s scripture moves away from the action of donkey rides and perfume anointing to Jesus’ final public preaching. One could easily view this scripture as just a crucifixion/resurrection prediction and use the the kenosis model of Christ. However, Gerard Sloyan wants to explore something more identity oriented. Take […]
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Holy Week Fragments: Monday
Today’s Scripture is John 12:1-11. Click here for the link. Mary pours a jar of perfume onto Jesus’ feet and washes his feet with her hair. Judas Iscariot (and likely other disciples) respond that they could have sold the perfume and given it to the poor. Jesus rebukes them and tell them the poor with […]
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Holy Week Fragments: Palm Sunday
As the Scholar in Residence at First UMC, Newton, I challenged the congregation to read the gospel lectionary text for each day of Holy Week and to sit with it. Of course, I am doing this too. I wanted to provide my first thoughts on Holy Week from a rural theologian and Christian educator. Here […]
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Rural Bible Readings: Psalm 50:1-3
I regularly teach the course “Engaging the Bible in Rural Ministry.” Throughout the course I work to instill the understanding that the Bible is a rural text. Rural communities find themselves in the text through the patterns of life, the imagery, story, and prophecy. When rural communities connect their story with the biblical story they […]
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Book Review: Dying of Whiteness
I recently finished listening to the podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed. I highly recommend it. In one episode, John Green refers to book reviews as memoirs of their writers’ experience with the book at that particular time. Books, movies, and other experiences connect with us in our context. I much prefer this understanding of book reviews […]
Rusty Water Towers 