Jesus in Mark When I first read the Christian Scriptures, I was struck by the Gospel of Mark. Carefully-crafted and well-plotted, the story moves quickly toward its climax of death and resurrection. The book describes the ministry of a man both human and holy, who risked his life to spread his message of love and nonviolent resistance. The gospel is clearly political. Its first sentence, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” is a veiled challenge to the Roman Emperor who called himself the “Son of God” and whose birth was proclaimed as the “good news.” For me, Mark’s story seemed more like an…
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Meaning and the Fruits of Our Labor
What Is the Fruit of Our Labor? In her poignant song, “Mercy Now,” Mary Gauthier writes, about her father, that the “fruits of his labor fall and rot slowly on the ground.” The image haunts me. Since it’s meant to be experienced, poetry loses something when we try to explain it, and yet I can’t help but wonder what this means. Is Gauthier saying that all the work he’s done over the years made no difference, that what he built has fallen apart? I think of an apple tree in a neighbor’s yard behind our house. Probably a hundred years old, the tree stands about 30′ tall, loaded with little,…
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The Influence of Fathers
Orlando and Fathers Last week, the big news was the Brock Turner rape. This week it’s Orlando, where Omar Mateen killed 49 men and women in a gay nightclub on Hispanic night. At the Pulse, people who felt condemned, berated, and threatened could be themselves and still feel safe. That sense of safety was shattered. This week also includes Father’s Day, so I thought I’d take a quick look at the impact of fathers on young men who grow up to love or hate, create or destroy. The classic father is wise and caring, yet can enforce rules with gentle firmness. A good father loves and protects us, he always…
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Fathers and Forgiveness
Forgiveness and Coming Home While I was looking for readings about fathers for this Sunday’s Recovery Church service, I re-read the chapter on “Father” in Henry Nouwen’s book The Return of the Prodigal Son. The book is an in-depth examination of Rembrandt’s “Prodigal Son” painting. The Bible story that prompted the painting is about rejection, addiction, and jealousy; it is also about homecoming, acceptance, and eternal love. As Nouwen explores the nuances and depths of both the parable and the painting, he addresses these issues and more, including a discussion about forgiveness. Ah, yes, forgiveness. Fathers and forgiveness seem to go together. Not necessarily because our earthly fathers are so…
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Loving the Earth – and Each Other
In the wake of the bombing at the Boston Marathon, I find the column I originally meant to write has changed. Because our next worship service falls on Earth Day this month, I thought I’d write about our need to protect the earth. Now I find myself wondering how we can learn to care for one another. Perhaps these are not exclusive themes: how we care for one another is intimately related to how we care for our earth. Years ago, I went to church with a man who was passionate about saving the Earth. In fact, he was so passionate about it that he tried to convince me I…
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The Gift of Generosity
To Give When We Have Little Years ago, when my boys were small, our bank put up a Christmas tree with paper ornaments on which were written children’s names, ages, and the gift they wished for. Each year, I would take one of those ornaments. Money was tight back then, so I looked for a small gift, one I could get for under ten dollars. One year, my son told me I shouldn’t do that. “If you leave it for someone with more money, they’ll buy a better gift.” I hesitated. What he said made sense to me, and I was aware of a hint of shame and unworthiness poking…
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Trust and My Father
When we came up with the topic for this month, we weren’t thinking that Sunday was Father’s Day. We came up with “trust,” which is big enough we could take a month of Sundays to talk about it without exhausting it. I mean, we could ask how we trust ourselves, or friends, or higher power? We could realize that some people are worthy of our trust; others not so much. But how do we know? Well, one person who taught us about trust was our father. In my chaplain work with addicts, I’ve found that if you had a good relationship with your father, you are more likely to have…
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On Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day, God, Love, and Superstition Given that this is the month of Valentine’s Day, we on the Worship Team decided to make love our theme this month. So love is what I’ll talk about in this column and at our upcoming worship service, but as I was trying to decide what I might say in this column about this vast topic, I happened to read the beginning of The Varieties of Scientific Experience by Carl Sagan. The book is a collection of lectures about searching for God and Truth through the scientific method. He liked the quote by William James about superstition, which was that superstition was believing in…
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Honoring the Dream
Facing Our Pain In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday, this month, we will talk on Sunday about King’s dream and about our own dreams for a better world. Although I start out talking about pain in this column, I am also talking about the dream for justice, equality, and fellowship that King called for. Last Sunday, I attended a service at Eastrose Unitarian Universalist Fellowship where the Rev. David Maynard spoke about pain. He was discussing the challenges and hopes for individuals who suffer from chronic pain. He quoted from a pastoral care pamphlet on pain that said, “Pain is a reliable indicator that something is wrong in…
