I’ve long been a fan of singer-songwriter Joan Baez for a long time. Not always: I guess I was aware that she had been present at Woodstock; and I was a pretty prissy guy when I was a kid and that awareness turned me off on so many things. But as she – and I – have matured, I’ve rediscovered her, with her talent, her show-person-ship and I’ve also discovered her as a person of faith who has made a career of advancing the reign of God. I knew that in the civil rights era s

This week is again one of those very long weeks. I am starting the second year of my doctorate with a rather interesting course - Mysticism and Spirituality. It’s interesting to have a mysticism course at a Lutheran Seminary, especially since mystics were not always viewed through a favorable eye by the reformers of the church. Remember that one of the things that Luther railed against was secrets that were not available to others, especially in the realm of the church and Bi

We were taking the red-eye flight from Denver to Philadelphia. One of the late boarders caught my attention as he made his way to the center seat two rows ahead of me. He had a lot of physical characteristics of my son's friend who lives in Denver. But with the face mask on, I couldn't be sure. I texted my son to confirm his friend's location but didn't get a reply before I had to turn off the phone for departure. So I kept an eye on the guy. Until I fell asleep. An hour or s

For the past few months, a few of us from Council have been attending a generosity seminar sponsored by the Delaware-Maryland Synod. We have discussed ways in which we are generous and ways that we can encourage generosity. We have even taken a try at creating a generosity statement to share with Council and the congregation. Before the statement can actually be evaluated we are invited by the facilitator to consider questions like: What is generosity? What am I thankful for?