Baptisms are cause for celebration. After almost every baptism there is a special reception at church, often followed by another party at home for family and friends. That was not the case for Jesus. He was baptized by his cousin John at age 30 in...
Today we come to the end of the season of Epiphany, what is known as the season of light. Epiphany always begins and ends the same way. The first Sunday of the season is always the time we celebrate Jesus’ baptism. And the last Sunday of the season is always the...
“With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and orphan,...
A number of events collide on the calendar today. My guess is that to most of the country today is first and foremost Super Bowl Sunday, a day when even people who are not football fans find themselves in front of a television,...
It was on a hot, humid, sultry August day that I left Nashville to move to Sewanee to begin seminary. Loyal friends had come over early that morning to help me load all of my worldly possessions into a rented truck. Now the...
One spring day almost a quarter of a century ago, Peggy and Mark Kennedy and their young son made a pilgrimage to Atlanta to visit Martin Luther King Jr.’s grave. From there they walked down the street where the Civil Rights icon had grown up. to the house where he...
It was the last session of a three-day retreat for Methodist ministers. On the gathering’s opening day, the leader had given an assignment. Each participant was to search through Scripture and find a name or a story that they could claim as their own. On the last day...
Arise, shine for your light has come! With these words from the prophet Isaiah we begin the season of Epiphany, often known as the season of light. Epiphany (which actually is tomorrow) begins with the light of the star that led the wise men to the infant...