Listen to “A Living Thing” by Fred Smith   My grandfather was a Baptist pastor with the temperament of an Irishman. Named Matthew Bunyan after John Bunyan, he was always addressed as Brother Smith by my grandmother. Mercurial and unpredictable are likely the right words for his relationships with both the deacons and the congregations he served. Today, we would call him a church planter but the truth is he moved around in his career more than most. I remember my father telling me that Brother Smith had an uncomfortable habit of telling the whole truth about the departed at funerals. Maybe his ill-timed honesty kept them itinerant and poor.…

Listen to “The Reef” by Fred Smith   In “Where Good Ideas Come From” Steven Johnson uses the illustration of a coral reef as an example of a structure that is both fragile and still able to withstand the incessant pounding of waves and storms. He relates Charles Darwin’s first experience with reefs and his amazement they were able to withstand the violent surges of water. “The ocean throwing its waters over the broad reef appears an invincible, all-powerful enemy; yet we see it resisted, and even conquered, by means which at first seem most weak and inefficient…Yet, these low insignificant coral-islets stand and are victorious: for here another power,…

Listen to “A Hand In The Flood” by Fred Smith   The Bible reminds us, “With a strong hand and an outstretched arm His love endures forever. We are safe in His hand and with His firm hand He is with us when we pass through the waters and when we pass through the rivers that threaten to sweep over us and overwhelm us.” I love that strong hand and outstretched arm. Especially when life is overwhelming. Mike Gerson’s stunning sermon on Sunday at The National Cathedral reminded me of an incident in my own life.  Not depression but fear. A few years ago, I was in just such a river…

Listen to “The Arena” by Fred Smith   Long before being appointed Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos in an interview spoke about something she had learned on a trip to Israel with her husband, Dick. There is a particular area between the foothills where Israel lived and the coastal plains controlled by the Philistines.  The site of many battles, it was a highly contested territory. However, it was never held permanently and so became the place where two cultures co-existed in tension. Called the Shephelah, it was a dangerous place to live. In the interview, Dick and Betsy described their desire to do just that – to live in the…

Listen to “If I Were Rich” By Fred Smith   “If I were rich, I would tell them exactly what I was thinking and not hold back. I would ask the hard questions. What could they do to me?” Like my friend, which of us doesn’t say that to ourselves now and then?  Of course, there are people who have enough confidence or lack of experience being rebuffed who are able to say what they are thinking without considering the consequences. That is why Doc Martin on PBS is one of my favorite characters.  His personality is gruff, to-the-point, and completely lacking in bedside manner. His total absence of filter means…

Listen to “God and the Good Life” by Fred Smith   Listening to Meghan Sullivan this week at the Augustine Collective Conference describe her introduction to philosophy course at Notre Dame titled “God and the Good Life” I started thinking about what the “good life” would mean. While there are a few outspoken critics about the role of religion in creating a good life – like the late Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins – it’s nearly a universal consensus that the role of religion is central in any consideration. But what religion? Is it all religions or just a few? Is it a defined orthodoxy or perhaps a combination like…

Listen to “At Last – Not Free” by Fred Smith   Max Pennywise, a local small business owner and new Chair of the Long-Range Planning committee at First Church had just finished reading the latest book on making churches sustainable – “Five Steps to Freedom: An Innovative Business Model for Congregations.” In it, he discovered how the leadership of First Church could move from dependency on donors to creating a business approach that was not only responsive to the customers but would guarantee a future based on effectiveness and efficiency. After all, with the number of people attending weekly services on the decline, an aging population of loyal donors, an…

Listen to “Paper Losses” by Fred Smith   Several years ago I read an article using the research of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Twersky to illustrate the brain’s reaction to gain and loss. It seems the amount of pleasure we receive from a gain of  $1000 is not equal to the amount of sadness we feel about a loss of the same amount. In fact, according to their findings, we are two times as sensitive to loss as we are to gain, and it would take a $2,000 gain to offset the pain of our $1,000 loss. Our capacity for regret seems to outpace our capacity for happiness by at…

Listen to “The Great Wave of Schism” by Fred Smith   Once upon a time, according to geologist Alfred Wegener in his 1912 book “The Origin of Continents and Oceans”, all the continents formed one large land mass called Pangaea. Three hundred million years ago, Earth didn’t have seven continents, but instead one mammoth supercontinent surrounded by a single ocean. The several continents fit together like a puzzle. For about 100 million years the puzzle held together but then with the shifting of the underlying tectonic plates the entire mass began drifting apart. No doubt, there had been minor breaks and smaller new formations but on the whole, Pangaea had…

Listen to “His Mother’s Son” by Fred Smith   Over the holidays I had time to think again about images of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Traditionally, what is our picture of Mary? An innocent virgin, humble servant, frightened by losing the young Jesus who has stayed behind in Jerusalem. She is the patient mother at the wedding at Cana wisely telling the stewards to do whatever Jesus tells them and ask no questions. She is the mourning figure standing beneath the cross while Jesus is crucified and, finally, a widow adopted by John at the end. How is she presented to us in art and music? Always young, beautiful…