For Ahmaud Arbery: I’ve got to run

May 23, 2020.Reading time 3 minutes.

The news has a cycle but I still run in a circle. Most days, I lace up my running shoes, stretch and shake my legs out before running around a homemade track around a pond. I run to work out problems. I run down leads on ideas. I run to reflect on my life and […]

What day is it? Justice for Ahmaud Arbery is late

May 13, 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

Justice isn’t blind; the justice system willingly turns a blind eye. Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed in Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23, but Tom Durden, the district attorney didn’t request a formal investigation until May 5. On May 6, the Kingsland Office began the investigation, and Arbery’s killers, the father and son, Gregory and […]

Losing our traditions: Online religion in the time of COVID-19

May 6, 2020.Reading time 5 minutes.

Time and again and for years on end, I have heard these two passages from the psalter: “This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118.24). “I will bless the Lord at all times; God’s praises will continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34.1). But […]

Praying during a pandemic: Hand in glove

April 24, 2020.Reading time 4 minutes.

Hand in glove, COVID-19 sees most American hands in gloves. We are not quick to touch, are slow to pick up and there is no discussion of “reaching out to touch somebody’s hand.” No, we “make this world a better place” by staying home. Once unknown due to long commutes and ever- increasing work hours, […]

Prayer and Hand Sanitizer Go Together: Praying During a Pandemic

April 22, 2020.Reading time 5 minutes.

Rub your hands together with me. I don’t doubt the power of prayer or hand sanitizer. I use both and my health is better for it. My bottle of hand sanitizer says it “kills 99 percent of germs without water.” I suspect that the effectiveness […]

Easter sermons: During the COVID- 19 crisis, is it too soon to declare Christ’s victory over death?

April 12, 2020.Reading time 3 minutes.

“Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” Jesus has come out of the grave but we cannot come out of our homes. We are told to stay home by local government officials. Eleven of Jesus’s disciples were hiding behind closed doors and this Easter, we are with them. We are not out in strong numbers, […]

What do you do when God leaves you hanging?

April 10, 2020.Reading time 18 minutes.

“From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 46And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” | Matthew 27.45-46, NRSV “Has anyone seen God?” Jill M. Hudson writes in Congregational Trauma: caring, coping and […]