LTSP Blogs

Like many in this country I was up and ready to hear the Supreme Court decision this morning on the Affordable Care Act, or as many like to call it - Obamacare. Many were waiting anxiously to have the entire law upheld. Others wanted all of it ruled unconstitutional. Still others thought maybe if they kept everything but the individual mandate they could live with the rest of it.

Job 38:1 Then the Holy One of Old answered Job out of the whirlwind: 

Looking forward to next week's Gospel and reflecting on the censuring of a Michigan State Representative, I discuss the woman with a vaginal hemorrhage in light of contemporary politcal and public discourse in my latest Huffington Post bog entry.

Let us pray: Holy One of Old, open our eyes that we may see. Amen.

I heard a comedy routine some years ago by George Carlin about STUFF. I still remember it:

Throughout the month of July 2012, Dr. Grafton will be serving as the supply pastor at the St. John the Baptist Church in Maadi, Cairo, Egypt.

The current pastor, the Rev. Paul-Gordon Chandler, is a friend and colleague of Dr. Grafton.

It’s not you it’s me. That’s the stereotypical and clichéd way to break up with someone. But what happens in the book of Samuel (and it’s a single book in Hebrew) is even tackier: The one partner (Israel) won’t talk to the other partner (God) and tells a third party (Samuel) that it’s time to redefine their relationship. Awkward!

Let us pray: Holy One of Old, open our eyes that we may see. Amen.

Recently I was asked by a former student how to adequately express joy in a sermon without sounding “slap-happy.” The preacher had been told by several members of her congregation that she sounded a bit sappy when she talked about the joy we can all find in our faith. They just didn’t “buy” her joy when she preached.