A short sermon on touch.

God reaches out to us, as we are going about our lives, and touches us. And then waits for our response. We can choose to respond or not. If we do, we’ll be different. Other people won’t understand. We won’t understand all the reasons and implications. But we know that God touched us, and we […]

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A prayer for the fourth Sunday in Lent

God. Three years ago, we were anxiously waiting, worriedly ready. We were increasingly dreading an illness we didn’t understand. We still don’t understand what happened, though so many people try. What we know for sure is how much we don’t know who to trust. Including you. We are like Samuel, late in his life. Samuel […]

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I’m called to love the people who annoy me.

Some of you, I’m guessing, read yesterday’s post and said, “What do you mean about Peter and Thomas being competitive?” I hadn’t ever thought about it until I was writing the sentence. We tend to think about the disciples of Jesus as punchlines, as memes. Doubting Thomas. Denying Peter. Peter, James, and John. Matthew the […]

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Tiny, consistent steps that show love.

They died less than an hour apart in the same hospital. I’d met one, I’d never heard of the other. One death was sudden, one was not surprising. As I talked with their families, I learned that each had loved and was deeply loved. And their lives were remarkably different. You have to take my […]

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Babe Ruth

Rich Dixon continues his ride along the Mississippi: Thursday of Week 3 – the bike-shop guy’s absolute certainty as he sketched the map should have been the first warning sign. The opening miles provided splendid early-morning river views and tours through suburban neighborhoods. The trail twisted through parks, along levees, and around riverside communities and […]

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