Woe is me! “Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6:5) Really, Rector?  Do you have to be so melodramatic?  Must you start your article with such a Prima Donna-ish Bible verse? Sorry for being so shrill, but you’ve got to […]

Collateral Damage Duncan asked me to write about the war in the Middle East and the war.  As someone with an academic specialty in the ethics of war, there is a lot to say on the subject.  However, I think everyone pretty much knows that while Israel may have clear justification to defend itself (i.e. […]

What did we learn? Face it.  Sometimes the only way God can get through to us is when the props are removed, the safety net cut, and the calendar emptied. Do you remember how you felt when the pandemic started?  Fear was a big response, I remember.  I was in the suburbs of Manhattan and […]

Remember, Remember The Fifth of November: Gunpower, Treason, and Plot!    This coming Sunday is Guy Fawkes Night. ‘Guy Who?’, I hear many of you ask. ‘Guy FAWKES,’ I mischievously reply.  It’s a British thing.  Work with me.  November 5th is the anniversary of the uncovering of a foiled assassination attempt on King James the […]

  Render to Caesar?  Huh?   Uh oh.  That’s an ominous-looking headline.    If you were in church last Sunday, or have listened to the sermon online, you will have noticed that I rather skillfully, though I say so myself, chickened out of commenting on the challenging and troubling aspect of the Gospel lesson.  The […]

Jesus Wept Over Jerusalem.  He still Does.   Want to know my claim to fame?  Well, take a seat.  Here you go…  My mother was once portrayed in a major motion picture.  OK, it’s not as impressive as you think.  She was not a household name in any household except the one I grew up […]

Losing Control Some call it the ‘doobly’, others the ‘podger’, still others the ‘blipper’, the ‘twitcher’, the ‘melly’, the ‘ponker’, or the ‘didge’*.  The less creative might name it the ‘clicker’, the ‘flipper’, the ‘changer’, or the ‘buttons’; while, for traditionalists, no fancy, synthetic word can replace its proper name – ‘the TV remote control’.  […]

‘Sorry’ Seems To Be The Hardest Word. When it comes to apologizing, Tyler really doesn’t get it.  It’s not his fault.  He’s only ten years old.  I’ve never met Tyler, but I think I’d like him.  His parents told him to apologize to his little brother after kicking him. Here’s the letter he wrote. “I’m […]