a prophetic voice-

                          After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing                            the inexpressible  is MUSIC. A small plastic sign bearing these words has stood on a shelf  in my living room for a couple of decades. Indeed, the paint is beginning  to peel,  to chip away, showing the wear-and-tear of time. Yet it  continues  to have  pride of place because of the truth it expresses  about my life. For me, music is and has always been the source of inexpressible  joy... especially when I am singing. And today...this very afternoon... I was  filled to overflowing with the joy of choral singing, as our High  Point  Community Chorus presented our spring concert.  To call the  afternoon  glorious barely scratches the surface of what I  was...

I enjoy having days which are active and full, days in which I feel I have accomplished something, done something worthwhile. But the older I get...though perhaps it is not truly age but wisdom- I can only hope... the more I enjoy days which unfold at a gentler pace...unhurried and unscheduled...giving me time to notice and enjoy and appreciate the world around and within me.   The last two days have been like that...and I have been savoring them, like the taste of honey on my tongue...listening to the songs of the birds,  watching the antics of the squirrels, hearing the sweet voices and laughter of the children passing by. My eyes have been delighted by the blossoming flowers in my yard and throughout the  neighbor- hood and my nose filled with the many and varied fragrances of spring, sneezes and all.  Writing notes and reading, listening to music on the HD radio and CD player, watching the ever-changing moon...these are the  activities w...

Yesterday, I preached about the road to Emmaus story from a different perspective- that of hospitality. And even that, I came at in a way which is a bit out of the ordinary. My 92-year-old pastor friend, who is a member of the congregation which I serve, told me afterward that I had preached prophetically, a great compliment to me, for that means I was dis comforting the comfortable, which I see as my "job", just as much as comforting those in distress. My love and gratitude to Pastor Nancy Kraft, my friend and sister in ministry, for her courage and for the loving presence of her congregation, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, in our North Carolina Lutheran Synod. Today’s Gospel in Luke speaks about the extreme hospitality of Jesus… his willingness, his eagerness to FEED people, both physically and spiritually… without asking about their beliefs, their faith, their theology… simply welcoming, with arms open wide, and accepting, as he did with those two conf...

Funny how it sneaks up on you, grief. You go along just fine for weeks, months at a time...sometimes even for years, and then, BAM! out of the blue it hits, knocking the wind right out of you... hitting you between the eyes...pummeling you relentlessly until you are against the ropes, begging for mercy. That's how it felt last evening. It began as I was listening to a young man on YouTube singing "Bring Him Home" from Les Mis,  a song which always stirs deep emotions. And then, a little later at bedtime, at the end of an emotional day in which I had presided at the memorial service for a young man of twenty- one who had been part of our congregation... as I turned out the light and lay down to sleep, I found myself weeping, sobbing in a way I had not done in a very long time...my body wracked with the spasms of weeping- for the family today, for my eldest son, dead now these twenty-one years... feeling once again that deep bereftness which comes from ha...

Two poems today, one from early morning when I was serenaded by a wren and a robin, perched together on my deck railing, singing in chorus...the second written this evening, as I recalled the scenery on my drive home, the vivid green where only short weeks ago there had been only brown...my words offered tonight as my way of saying goodbye to April and bidding a welcome to May. true community Unity Community A wren and a robin Perched on my deck railing  Voices lifted in chorus Tiny wren Full-breasted robin Differences forgotten Unimportant As their two voices Became one in Offering greeting To the new day spring greenery... All around me the world is greening the green of growth and aliveness                   of springtime and new birth every imaginable shade and hue                              with a few       ...

I was tired last evening, so I went to bed early- about 9:30- and fell quickly into a deep sleep. I became caught up in a dream and I abruptly awoke at 12:30a.m. with an image clearly in my mind... a phrase which had come from I-know-not-where but which would not let me rest until I had put it down on paper, lest it be forgotten by morning. And so I grabbed my journal and my pen and wrote... and the phrase turned into complete thoughts and the thoughts turned into verses...and what emerged in the wee hours of Sunday morning were these lines... star light, star bright... I dreamed myself among the stars soaring through space weightless yet still embodied                           still myself my head thrown back in utter joy as, freely borne, I saw in the Milky Way a light-filled path      to where? Eternity? ...

Tomorrow, I'm supposed to be preaching about Thomas, the disciple we've tagged with the sobriquet, "Doubting Thomas"... as if the other ten guys didn't doubt. After all, the story in John's gospel takes place on the evening of the day of Resurrection... the women had visited Jesus' tomb and were told by an angel, no less, that Jesus had been raised, was no longer there. And Peter and John, two of the inner circle, had checked it out for themselves and found that the women weren't suffering from hysteria- the grave was indeed empty. Good news, right? So why are they gathered together in a locked room, shaking with fear? Afraid, perhaps, that Jesus' fate awaited them? Afraid of how they could go on without their leader, teacher, friend? Or afraid that if Jesus really were alive and showed up, he would be totally pissed off at their desertion and denials and all-round cowardice? That he would ream them out royally for their failure of...