The week started over coffee with a young man having just completed the ultimate business deal of his career. If managed right the assets would be a fortune providing for him and his family for the rest of their lives. Expecting exhilaration, I asked him how he felt and to my surprise he said, “I’m afraid. I know I don’t deserve this and I might lose it as quickly as I made it. God could always take it away.” That reminded me of the calling of Peter by Jesus in the boat on the lake. Immediately following the biggest catch of their lives suddenly Peter says, “Depart from me Lord…

Several times in the New Testament we encounter the surprising notion that the best people are lacking something.  The rich young man was quick to answer that he had obeyed all the commandments and had lived a life of integrity since he was a boy. Jesus loved him immediately and said, “You still lack one thing.” It was the one thing too much and he went away sad.  In Ephesus, Paul’s companions meet Apollos.  A rare individual with all the right preparation for the work. He had the pedigree, the skills, the connections, the accent and the ability to both attract and refute. An extraordinary talent. Yet, as they listened…

Studies are showing that giving, especially smaller gifts, has increased substantially during the pandemic. In fact, donations to food banks and other assistance programs has increased by 667 percent nationally. While experts predicted it would go in just the opposite direction, the CARES Act has expanded the amount of giving individuals may take as a tax deduction and the giving by private foundations and donor advised funds has surged during the coronavirus crisis, eclipsing donations during the 2008 recession and after the September 11 terrorist attacks. As one person described it, “At the beginning of the pandemic, I did the same thing everyone did: I looked at the stock market…

The Greeks, as always, had a word for it: tragedy. That’s the first word that came to my mind when I stared at the photo of Jerry Falwell, Jr aboard his yacht snugged up against his wife’s assistant and both of them partially unzipped. The Greeks understood the drama of our lives and how it plays out according to our appropriate respect for or defiance of the gods. Immutable destiny drives the plot of our individual stories and excessive pride or even undeserved good fortune leads invisibly but relentlessly to self-destruction. Hubris, by thinking of oneself as somehow exempt from divine laws, is tried in the public court and the…

Most of us are familiar with William Wilberforce for his long but ultimately successful struggle to abolish the slave trade in England. “God Almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.” We know far more about the first object than the latter but it is that reformation of manners that interests me as we watch our country head into a similar reformation in a search for all manner of purity. He became concerned about the large number of death sentences carried out in England at that time. Believing that people punished for petty crimes would be less likely to…

I think it was long-time Chaplain of the Senate Dick Halverson who said, “In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centering on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece, where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next it moved to Europe where it became a culture, and, finally, it moved to America where it became an enterprise.” My introduction to the enterprise was in the late 60s as a college student employed by Word Records in Waco, Texas. Word had begun in 1951 as the brainchild of Jarrell McCracken with the publishing of a single…

In his documentary film, “Korengal,“ author and director Sebastian Junger recounts the stories of a platoon of American soldiers deployed to a tiny and dangerous outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. The “grinding boredom gives way to bowel-emptying fear, followed sometimes by episodes of nearly psychedelic blood lust and the frankly sexual pleasure of unleashing a .50-caliber machine gun on enemies who are doing the same to you.” While the film is horrifying to watch, Junger’s book, ”The Tribe” makes the case that coming home from war is often harder than risking your life: “There is something to be said for using risk to forge social bonds…Having something to fight for,…

When Bob Dylan stepped on the Newport Folk Festival stage in July 1965 there was nothing in his last three appearances that could have prepared the 100,000 devout fans for what happened next. Instead of his usual acoustic guitar and denim work clothes, he was outfitted completely in black and then plugged in an electric guitar. What followed was a moment that marked the end of the folk revival by the performer everyone considered the voice belonging to them all. The introduction that night was, “And here he is…take him, you know him, he’s yours.” If they had only known what was coming. With the Butterfield Blues Band behind him…

There are a few figures in Scripture who grow on you with age. Perhaps we come to understand their circumstances or have more in common in growing older. We have experiences of our own that explain their behavior.  That is the case for me with Ahithophel. My first response to his story many years ago was, “Oh, the traitor who committed suicide.” Yes, he did but he was far more than that and it’s the “far more” that interests me. When Absalom rebels his first call is to Ahithophel – David’s most devout friend and counselor. Surprisingly, Ahithophel joins the rebellion and while fleeing Jerusalem David hears the news of…

A friend mentioned he is re-reading Graham Greene’s “The Power and The Glory.” It’s the story of a failed priest on the run from the police. He is friendless, homeless, and searching for some sense of purpose in his life. Hiding from his calling and decisions he has made in the past he is ironically incapable of not being a priest and ministering to people – even at the risk of his life. Tormented by his own sense of guilt, he spends the whole of the novel both in flight and in pursuit. It is so much like the life of Jonah. I don’t know if Graham Greene had him…