Goldberg Variations
I heard Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the radio, then received the recordings as a gift: Glenn Gould’s “A State of Wonder – The Complete Goldberg Variations.” Gould (1932-1982) was a celebrated classical pianists and best known as an interpreter of Bach’s keyboard works. At age 23, Gould recorded Bach’s Goldberg Variations with dazzling speed and…
Silence
Alone, I find God oddly silent. Adam and Eve “…heard the sound of the LORD God walking the garden at the time of the evening breeze,” and God spoke to them, “Where are you?” God told Moses to say, “I AM has sent me.” And Elijah, hiding in cave, did not hear God in the…
Screwdriver
One morning, in the neighborhood hardware store, I was set to buy a screwdriver, just right for a chore that day. A woman at the checkout was talking on her phone. I waited. The storekeep held out his hand, “One key, dollar seventy-eight.” Still talking, she lifted a shoulder to squeeze the phone to her…
Packrat
I don’t know if he was a packrat but somehow an awful lot of stuff got saved … old letters, Christmas cards (“I paste over the writin’ and send ‘em out again!”) and enough ornaments for the Washington Mall. There was a stack of shoeboxes full of yellowing photographs and a half dozen busted lawnmowers…
What is saving you today?
“What is saving you today?” That may be the best question ever asked, a question that, once in mind, is never far from your lips. Barbara Brown Taylor, a fine preacher in the Episcopal tradition, was once in a quandary … a sermon was due, it was Saturday evening, and inspiration was in short supply. She chanced…
Huckleberry Finn
I’ve been a preacher for some years but I’m still tempted by books with tips and techniques on preaching, thick commentaries that elucidate, expound and explicate scripture, books that unpack the original Hebrew and Greek. Now, more than then, I’m with Huckleberry Finn. Huck knew a few things about getting the words just right: “I…
Prayer Walk
After church, we gathered for a Prayer Walk, a walkabout in our church neighborhood. We walked and paused to pray and greet our neighbors. The prayer that started us on our Prayer Walk began something like this: “We can never know what or whom we will encounter or what will happen once we are beyond…
Nothing
The man came to see someone who was not at home. The old lady bid him enter, sit and wait. She fell back into the rhythm of her day. She wiped applesauce from baby’s face, examined homework, adjusted the TV, answered the ‘phone, cleaned a spill, folded laundry, started the preparations for dinner, and looked in…
Carpenter
It’s a great mystery to me: How ought my workaday life reflect my commitment to Christ? Whether I am a laborer or tradesman, a salesman or sailor, how am I to bring the Kingdom into the land? How does my daily work reflect my values as a Christian? I came upon the words of Dorothy…
Letter
At a church conference long ago, a priest encouraged us to write to prisoners. I sat in the back next to the wall. My mind wandered. I wished I had a newspaper. I was certainly not thinking that I should write to prisoners. Then the priest said, “There is one prisoner no one has been…
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.
