What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
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Early morning haze and the specter of rising humidity accompanied morning coffee this week. It felt the same as in the past, yet differences were apparent. It had been over five years since our last visit to some favorite Flint Hills fishing ponds. Busy schedules and busy lives took much of the blame but little of the responsibility. That belonged to us. It’s a pattern familiar to many; places visited, richness gained, declarations to return soon, and always the perception that there was plenty...
When judging the success of churches, there continues to be a tendency to fall back on numbers. Attendees, members, baptisms, baby dedications, weddings and souls declared and delivered for Christ are all indicators of the value of the work that is being done. The more the merrier. Reality, however, sheds a different light on the work we think has been done. A glance backward in my own Western Plains district (comprised of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and northern New Mexico) provides interesting...
Change falls hard on religious institutions and its members because we care intensely and deeply for what our churches have provided to us in the past. Theological conviction and foundation, laid over decades of participation, willing or unwilling, shape and mold us still. While much of religion has grown beyond its infancy, we can still look to the past as inspiration to continue moving forward. Believing religion to be static and unchanging has done more for its decline than almost any other...
Six decades, five states, four varieties and pies too many to count, the saga of a rhubarb dynasty was thought complete, brought to a standstill by last years’ drought and the harsh winter of ‘22-’23. Hills reverently divided and shared — a garden eucharist — found a place at the table among family members, friends, acquaintances and neighbors. “Borrowed,” split, and shared, the various hills were garden currency of a sort. Twenty-four hills from recent gardening years bore both red and green...
And so, the real work begins as Holy Week culminates in anticipated, though not unexpected, outcomes. Perfect hindsight is confirmed. The movement that Jesus never intended to establish, let alone lead, has since grown into a major world religion filled with insight, hope and possibility based on the promises of the cross. When the anticipation, hype, and lead-up recedes from its annual liturgical crescendo, we remain faced with a tragic and broken world, one which Jesus followers could never...
Deconstruction is nearly over with Holy Week in full camber, arcing across our lives. Grace that began the Lenten season has encircled us, and through its work we find ourselves on better paths, with better guides and deeper friends to keep us company. The ultimately redeeming self-examination of Lent becomes opportunity for fresh starts and clarity of vision. In reconstructing our faith leading up to this season of Easter, there results a new-found sense of equilibrium, a wholeness that comes...
“Temperance, tolerance, and moderation” has been a catch phrase emerging from over three centuries of denominational DNA. Though unable to pinpoint the exact moment it was coined, the embodiment of its ideals is deeply engrained in low church theologies of Anabaptism and Pietism, both owing much to the Radical Reformation gaining a toe-hold in Western Europe. As literal ‘re-baptizers,’ Anabaptists and Pietists were often subjected to torture and sometimes death for practicing believe...
Finding the middle road can be tough. Getting up on it, and staying on it, can be tough. Sliding off due to a high crown in the road is not fun, and breaking down is never a highlight, especially when we are needing to be elsewhere (which is most of the time). Despite its challenges, the middle road, or middle ground, is an important locale to meet others. It is a place, a pathway, a route to somewhere or something that just might constitute a sacred encounter with the Divine if we are so...
Not quite a fully-fledged aphorism, “the power of one” is nonetheless influential enough to incorporate into our day-to-day existence, bringing some degree of hope and imagination to lives dulled by indifferent culture. The everyday can be wearing, and the suggestion that any single person could make a grand difference is a rather distant and foreign concept for many. Daily burdens weigh heavily on a most of the world’s population. “But, this isn’t what I signed up for,” rises the lament. A c...
Knowing where you are and where you want to end up are two very different things. If it isn’t snow, its drifting snow, and if it isn’t drifting snow its mud, not isolated soft places on a gravel road mind you, but to-the-axel bona fide dirt road mud. In 25 years, the county road bordering a lower pasture has never been impassable … until now. Successive snows led to the need to keep drifts at bay by pushing snow ever higher along the county’s 30-foot easement setback. The piles, acting as addi...
The world is full of unimaginable hardships, many which we will never experience. The list is long, both directly and indirectly. Hurtfulness has no favorites. But, a world of hurt cannot stifle the goodness that resides in others. We see it daily in kindnesses offered, the willingness to lighten loads of friends and neighbors and in the overwhelming generosities that come in unexpected moments from unexpected places. Hopefulness has no limitations. Loneliness in our culture is rampant and...
Sanctuary is a difficult concept to grasp. There are too many definitions and too few certainties in its use. Is it a building where religious program focuses primarily on worship? Is it related to border issues and so-called sanctuary cities, or is it more personal, individual congregations offering safety within their walls to those who are displaced? Is it inviolable once established or is there definitional wiggle room? Is it a place, an attitude, a blessing, or something more? We have lost...
In the early 1990s, a group of researchers helped pioneer an inventive computational model known as distributed computing. In short, it allowed projects that were hampered by lack of computational power, time, and resources to invite public participation in the processing of data. One notable enterprise was the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The data gathering capability of the National Science Foundation’s Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico exceeded available c...
Most persons have experienced the participatory sport known as busting drifts, if not this year, then certainly in seasons past. Anyone is eligible for the sport if they have enough courage and the right vehicle. The sport is at its edgiest when the outcome is in the hands of drivers who apply a variety of maneuvers to achieve the goal of not becoming snowbound at the side of the road. Variables include speed, lighting, wind velocity, visibility, base conditions, vehicle clearance, temperature...
For the past 26 years an extra rider has accompanied us in one of our vehicles. It is in fact a small cartoonish plastic cricket from a fast-food children’s meal ordered from a drive thru in mid-summer 1988. There is no rhyme or reason to have kept it other than to humor our kids and whimsically reflect on our time together. Long after the cricket’s built-in chirp faded. we still found ourselves reluctant to give it up. It had grown on us. Through no real effort on our part, we had an hon...
Heavy snows and cloudy skies highlighted a rather difficult week of getting out and about. Driving was an exercise in caution regarding the drifting and blowing snow. The whites and grays of consecutive snowfalls and dismal skies blended to form a monochromatic and featureless landscape. It always helps to see the edge of the road while driving, but even that became difficult due to lack of contrast. Polarized sunglasses were somewhat helpful but could not solve the dilemma entirely. Blowing...
Shelves in religious book sections (virtual or otherwise) are overflowing these days with enticing titles on how to fix Protestantism and the state of the overall church. Few arguments remain untried that offer clear solutions to failing memberships, declining seminary enrollments and the diminishing relevance of traditional Christianity, most openly expressed in the lives of younger generations. Like climate change naysayers in recent times, mainstream Christianity can no longer deny the...
Every few months or so a rather government-ish looking letter fueled with urgency arrives in the mailbox. The wording and appearance of this and similar letters mimics something more insidious, something filled with apparent officiousness but totally lacking in substance. It is quite simple. The goal is to separate you from your pocket book while manipulating your good will and common sense. How to convince you to believe something from nothing without bumping into legal prohibitions? Use...
It was time for something to change regarding a worn and splintery edge-grain fir floor. Options were rather simple but limited: tear out and replace, sand and refinish or lay new prefinished flooring over the old. Sensible arguments could be made for any of the choices. Tearing out would likely expose any flaws that might be of concern regarding the current floor and allow for a more thorough inspection that might discover particular problems since the house was built in 1917. On the other...
This Advent season finds our social fabric a bit tested and threadbare. That reflects neither complaint nor critique, but rather a shared consensus view that things are not all they could be. Is that so different than previous seasons or is there something novel, a new wilderness in the mix? John the Baptist would likely suggest that wilderness is wilderness and lostness is lostness and to acknowledge either one is to know truth. To broach the wilds is about bringing a knowing attitude that is...
It is not easy some days to stay above the fray and avoid being consumed by events immediately surrounding us, particularly when they include current politics, economic realities and a cultural malaise that has been with us for some time. At street level, it can be draining to recognize and fend off what is debilitating in our everyday lives. Even when we recognize dysfunction for what it is, doing something about it is a whole ‘nother matter. A better perspective is not always possible nor a...
Once again Thanksgiving is upon us before most of us are ready. This year has felt more last minute, in part due to inflationary food and travel expenses. And it sounds as if ‘over the river and through the woods’ is descriptive of either drought conditions or northeast lake effect snow measured in feet. We are in a time of unpredictability in many areas of our lives. It is why finding ways to enjoy our time together is critical for our mental, physical. And spiritual health. One thing is cer...
A wild-tending world view is described by nativist author Randy Woodley as “one that maintains a careful watch on the whole community of creation, assuring everything stays in balance for generations to come.” (Becoming Rooted, 2022) We could use a little bit of that world view now about now, in home, at home, even far from home. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to open our doors to the possibility of possibility, to breathe mirthful breezes of hope and encouragement to merge onto broad avenues of li...
One of the simpler digressions in faith building in recent years has been to ask, “What would Jesus do?” While emulating Christ is generally a safe bet, the concept runs deeper and is more complex than a few blithe questions regarding the modeling of behaviors. The normal course of events in today’s arena of max-critical politics, is to build oneself up by tearing others down. Such behavior should be accompanied by deep shame at our failure to respect one another. It is not impossible to do, b...
The word “gnarly” has undergone a renaissance of sorts in recent decades from a rather uncomplimentary adjective to something celebrating a unique accomplishment or particular look that is in vogue in the moment. What escapes attention from time-to-time is the beauty that often accompanies like descriptions. The fall vegetable treasure hunt for many gardeners includes discovering decorative gourds, desired for their embellishments, that qualify as both gnarly and amazing in design. Their flu...
