Change the world
There was a time when I believed that a better world would come about through systemic effort. If we just fix the system, the lowly will be lifted, mercy will prevail. Some of that’s true, but I never really saw it. I finally tired myself out and sat on the sideline. Then Sr. Kathleen, an…
Christ Comes, Christ Goes
Leonard Cohen’s thoughts on Jesus, from a blog post 15 or more years ago: “As I understand it, into the heart of every Christian, Christ comes, and Christ goes. When, by his Grace, the landscape of the heart becomes vast and deep and limitless, then Christ makes His abode in that grateful heart, and His…
Neighbors
I’d been curious who lived in the little house with the windows and doors duct-taped, tin foil covering the mail slot. One day I spoke to him as he picked up scattered mail. From time to time, I stopped by to see how he was getting on. He never invited me in, too many germs…
Calling
I’ve been writing and visiting prisoners, men under sentence of death, for twenty years now. It does seem a strange thing to do. I started by visiting one man. Next thing I knew, there were five. I seldom encourage others to visit prisoners. Every call to a ministry is a singular gift to the one…
Sam
In 1977, Sam was a Mennonite, I was unchurched. Friends, we went our separate ways. Sam wrote to me 44 years later. He is a biomechanical engineer, no longer a Mennonite, still a man of faith. Sam sent me the words of Isaiah 61:1, saying they struck him so deeply they became his life’s calling:…
Intercession
A priest and I spoke about a possible parish ministry that might address gun violence. I mentioned reading an article in the New Yorker about people in the city who intervene when gun violence might erupt. She replied, “Our congregation? In the streets? With armed, angry people all around? That’s not where I would send…
Watercolor
My father painted small watercolors. Though never formally trained, he was good at it. He used good paper and his paints came in tiny tubes. Payne’s Gray was his favorite, a dark gray that found its way into every watercolor … sky, ocean, the hull of a derelict boat on a deserted beach. I once…
Honorific
There is a man in prison I’ve been writing to for some years. I write on plain paper, address an ordinary envelope, affix a stamp and a return address label. I get labels free in the mail with solicitations. My friend asked if I would order him return address labels like mine. I did so…
How’re You Today?
I’ve written before about Loretta at the drug store, how on most days over the past years she’s been there to hand me my newspaper and count the nickels and dimes I slide across the counter. While all this high finance is going on, there’s always some small thing to converse about, maybe no more…
Better
I was with her once a week for an entire afternoon. She was fussy and annoying and it left me exhausted. In a waiting room, she levered herself from her chair, toddled over to the magazine rack and straightened the magazines. In an elevator, with an old hanky, she wiped down the rail and button…
Did You Know? – Deacon Josh
The Rev. Josh Butler is a Vocational Deacon in the Diocese of Ohio.
It is the deacon who ends the service, dismissing the congregation to go out in the community to serve. In his Deacon’s Dismissal, Josh offers reflections to strengthen and inspire us in our call to service.
