Thanksgiving, November 25, 2020

Thanksgiving is taking a hit this year.  Both the holiday and the activity. The holiday because of the restrictions on family gatherings and the potential of spreading the virus in these gatherings. The activity because it may be more of a challenge this year to find things to be thankful for.  I saw an article in the paper the other morning that captured my attention. It was entitled: “You have permission to not feel thankful this year.” This struck me as a very honest approach to the 2020 Thanksgiving holiday and the activity of giving thanks this year.  

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Advent 1, November 29, 2020

I had trouble sleeping the other night. It was in the early hours of the morning and it was too early to get up for the day so I decided to see if relocating downstairs would help me fall asleep for a couple more hours.  As I lay there on the couch I could see the beautiful night sky framed by the family room window.  A dark midnight blue.  The soft glow of a waning moon. The silhouette of winter trees.  And stars scattered across that heavenly canvas.

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Christ the King, November 22, 2020

Experts keep telling us that we are entering a dark winter.  That things will get worse before they get better and no one knows exactly how to help us through this.

So this leaves us with some questions on this Christ the King Sunday 2020:

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Pentecost 24, 2020

This parable of Jesus today has always scared me a little bit. It’s a story about a wealthy and very generous landowner who gives responsibility over his property to three of his servants while he is gone.  Two of them are successful managers and realize a significant profit for their master.  One of them protects what the master gave him and buries it.  There is a frightening ending to the story; the third servant is cast in outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth – a unique phrase to the Gospel of Matthew used several times in the parables to describe a tragic fate.  No one knows EXACTLY what it refers to, but it can’t be good.  So I’ve always heard this moral of the story loud and clear:  Invest your money, use your talents, OR ELSE!

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Pentecost 23, November 8, 2020

It’s not unusual for Americans to have to wait through the night on Election Day to find out the result. This year we’ve had to wait through several nights. In fact I noticed a graphic that was used on one of the network newscasts this week that read “Election Night in America. Continued.”  They had told us to be prepared for this delay, but it still caught many of us off guard.

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All Saints’ Day, November 1, 2020

There is a moments in the musical Hamilton, when the 18^th century American colonists celebrate a victory over the British army at Yorktown.  They sing, “we won, we won, we won!  The world turned upside down.”  That victory did indeed turn things around and the revolution they started created a new world. 

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