From the category archives:

THEOLOGY

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL: God shed his grace on thee

July 4, 2010

I love the patriotic song, America the Beautiful. In many ways, I prefer it to the Star Spangled Banner, which I find difficult to sing and less representative of the American spirit.   That doesn’t stop me from welling up when it is played at the Olympics, at the beginning of a baseball game, or at [...]

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PILGRIMAGE: a journey, esp. a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion

June 21, 2010

The church we visited yesterday is sending a group of young people and their advisers on a pilgrimage this coming Saturday.  They will be gone for a couple of weeks, visiting the Sioux/Lakota people in South Dakota.  Yesterday the priest, on behalf of the people of the congregation, commissioned the pilgrims and presented them with [...]

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ANESTHESIA: loss of sensation or consciousness

May 29, 2010

Yesterday I had a medical procedure which required anesthesia.  It is a repeatable offense, so I’m used to it by now.  But each time it occurs I find myself thinking about the sensation of it…or, to be honest, the lack of sensation.
An invention of the nineteenth century, anesthesia is the creation of artificial unconsciousness.  Through [...]

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JEREMIAD: a prolonged lamentation or mournful complaint.

May 12, 2010

The biblical prophet, Jeremiah, was despondent, filled with hopelessness.  His sermons are depressing and morose.  The graphic shown, a piece of the Sistine Chapel painting by Michelangelo, accurately depicts him as a man living without joy.  He brought a message of change to the residents of Judea and they ignored him.  The unique characteristic of [...]

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GREEN: no longer just “tree huggers”

May 6, 2010

About ten years ago we lived across the street from a cathedral which had a lovely evergreen bush/tree in its side yard.  We could see it from our apartment windows.  Every day a diminutive lady would walk down the street, carefully place her shopping bags on the lawn, and walk up to the tree.  [...]

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CAIRN: a mound of stones erected as a memorial or marker

May 3, 2010

Remember the scene in Schindler’s List where admirers placed stones on the gravesite of  Schindler to memorialize his courageous act of rescuing condemned Jews from the Nazis?  I’ve seen that gravesite in Jerusalem and added a stone to the pile which lives atop his grave stone.  It is a common practice among Jews to honor  [...]

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PARADIGM CHANGE #2: Church and State

April 17, 2010

The fragile relationship between church and state has not always been that way.  It is only a matter of a few decades ago that the question was much more of an intellectual debate than it is now.  Recently, however, the issue has risen to the point of actual legislative testing and there is a [...]

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WORK ETHIC: A set of values based on the moral virtues of hard work and diligence.

April 6, 2010

The vast number of people unemployed in the United States is overwhelming.  It is a phenomenon which has not been this vast since the days of the Great Depression, although it was even more disastrous then.  Unemployment may be the root cause of a period of unrest, increased violence, depression, political anger, and who knows [...]

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RESURRECTION: The act of rising from the dead or returning to life.

April 4, 2010

Today Christians throughout the world celebrate Easter Day, known as the Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead.
The familiar story of the women coming to the tomb of Jesus to prepare his body for proper burial and finding an empty tomb is central to the belief system of Christians.  [...]

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MARRIAGE: more than a wedding

April 3, 2010

Yesterday I received wonderful news.  My godson, Mark,  and his partner of fifteen years, Michael, were married in Washington, D.C.   It was the fifteen anniversary of their commitment ceremony.  In the meantime they have established themselves as respected professionals; demonstrated the qualities of commitment which are enviable; and adopted a beautiful little girl, Haley.  Throughout [...]

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