“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is just another way of saying that beauty can be subjective. Jesus of Nazareth taught us that the eye is the “lamp of the body” and insuates throughout his life that the eye is somehow connected to these hearts of ours in order for us to figure out truth as well as beauty. One day his disciples asked him why he taught in parables, and he replied that they [his hearers] are blind to the truth that is right before them. “The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing […]
Finding Humor in the Holy
I seem to have been born with more than one funny bone, and humor has always been a vital part of my life. If, as the hymn suggests, “prayer is the soul’s sincere desire”, a good laugh is the soul’s sigh of relief for being human. And if we can develop this capacity to smile at the absurdity of ourselves, first of all, and then at all that’s going on around us, we just might have tapped into one of the deepest wells of faith with the realization that humor was one of the best ways we experience God and […]
Holy Assumptions
Did you hear the one about the priest who died and went to heaven, a holy assumption to begin with. When he got there, Peter welcomed him and told him that because of his sterling record on earth he would be granted any wish in heaven. Without hesitation, the priest said he’d like to have an audience with the Virgin Mary. In short order, even by heavenly standards, he was sitting in a lovely Victorian drawing room with the Virgin herself. She asked what she could do for this almost perfect priest who went straight to the point: “On earth […]
What Happened to Status Quo?
Memory lane is absolutely lovely, meandering through the recollections of how much better life was in the good old days full of traditional values when men were men and women were just women! And if black lives did matter then, they didn’t have too much to show for it since they were not allowed to vote. And don’t forget those water fountains and segregated toilets. Those were also the good old days when northerners lived in the north before we ever had air-conditioning. As the country music sings it: “Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be!” In the church of […]
Heretics & Heroes
Way back in history, those precious people would think some of the most unthinkable thoughts and do the most outlandish things to earn that combo category of heretic and hero. My early heretical heroes were Job, Jesus and Joan. Job was considered outside the pale of faith by his three pietistic friends who tried to convince and convict him that his past sins had lead him to the god-awful predicaments of what was left of his miserable life. They were in effect trying to tell Job to “get right with God” or “come to Jesus”, except there was no Jesus […]