One of the most difficult parts of discipleship is knowing how we can see our way clear to do the things we ought. Our spiritual vision is not always 20/20, any more than our physical vision is. Our scripture lessons today speak to the clarity and completeness of our vision, and both need to be taken into account when we think of living fruitful Christian lives.
The Old Testament Lesson reminds us that even Moses, the spiritual giant, who was permitted a direct vision of God’s glory and goodness (an almost unheard of thing in the Bible), discovered that he… Continue reading →

I remember being raised in Wisconsin towns full of church folks for whom Lent was a time of sombre self-denial to commemorate the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness. I remember a few talks with my friends in school who would tell, with obvious forethought, what they were “giving up” for Lent. I almost always ended up feeling rather left out in all that because, being a Baptist, we didn’t observe Lent in that way, or really very much at all. I felt as if I didn’t even know what a “good thing” to give up at Lent might… Continue reading →

Thursday, we took part of the day off and drove to Eau Claire to celebrate my brother-in-law’s 90th birthday. Davis has been in our family as long as I can remember. He married my sister in 1952 and I have memories of his visits to our house for Sunday services followed by dinners at the parsonage of First Baptist Church of Eau Claire before that. Although we haven’t lived in close proximity for but a few of the 65 years of their marriage, I have watched the movement of his life from a young energetic lawyer and Wisconsin state senator… Continue reading →

Today is the first Sunday of Lent in which we prepare for the remembrance of Jesus’ Passion, Death, and, beyond that, Resurrection at Easter. In Lent, we have an opportunity to consider where we are as pilgrims through our particular barren lands. I have had colleagues who have said that Lent is their favourite time of the church year. That’s not true for me, which is probably a function of my past where Lent has often been a time when we were encouraged to do little but feel bad about what sinners we are. This was, sometimes, unfortunately, linked to… Continue reading →