Language
Pandemic notwithstanding, I go twice a month to greet people who come the Food Pantry. People remain in their cars until a bag of fresh produce can be loaded into the trunk. As they wait, I walk along the line of cars. With mask and social distancing, my words are muffled and my expression unseen….
Trash
I park in the same lot every day. There’s a trash can handy for candy wrappers, but someone stuffed it with a bag of household trash. Most of it was on the ground. I sighed. I tried not to notice but, alas, there it was. Not everyone travels with the tools to pick up chicken…
Doing good
It happens to every Christian … on some occasion we are called upon to offer a succinct explanation of who Jesus was and what he did. This happened to Peter, at the home of Cornelius the Centurion, himself a Christian. Asked to address the assembled people, Peter said these words: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth…
Holy Spirit
I try to be careful which actions in this world I attribute to the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, things just happen. Othertimes, things happen with purpose, the Holy Spirit somewhere in the mix. I said to a man, “The Spirit is at work in your life!” He countered by expounding on the physical world, about neurons…
Marked
The priest, holding my infant goddaughter, said, “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever.” That was 24 years ago. She lives far away now and told me she has no commitment to faith. I wrote to her: “I’m a Christian because the message of the Gospel…
Summer ’68
Summer ’68, you may recall the Democratic Convention, Chicago, Grant Park, protestors and police, newspapers called it a riot. It wasn’t much fun. Separated from others, I walked over a knoll and a lone policeman walked toward me, blue shirt, helmet, billy club. We stopped two paces apart. He took off his helmet, wiped his forehead…
Persistence
John Calvin Coolidge, (1872-1933), America’s 30th President, lived life by this maxim: “Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and…
Driving Cattle
An article* on How to Drive Cattle may have good advice on working with people. Excerpts: “You have to read your cow. You have no idea how cows are going to react.” … “Drive cattle at the pace of a walk.” … “Make sure they see you and start talking to them.” … “It is…
Waiting
The world is troubled yet I am a fortunate man. I have work to do and a quiet room to wait out the dystopia, a refuge where I can read and work, if only fitfully, at some small project, more for diversion than to create anything new. From my window, I see a large bird, circling. A…
Style
When I was sixteen, I had a tedious summer job sorting out bits and pieces of hardware … this bolt in this bin … that screw in that bin. Boring, but I did my best and I appreciated the pay. Once, a man came and watched me work. He didn’t say who he was so…
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.
