Singing Along the Journey
Thoughts about faith and wholeness set to the soundtrack of life

Practice, practice, practice…

That's right.  Yes, I spend much of my day looking through what an academic theologian might call my subversiveness hermeneutic.  That word hermeneutic is just, as my mother would have said, a $10 word for perspective or viewpoint.  To me, however, there is a difference -- the idea of hermeneutic (which comes from a Greek word meaning to translate or interpret) carries with it a level of intentionality that the idea of perspective or viewpoint does not. Now that we have that sorted out, I'm really writing because I have a question that I have been asking myself lately, one that just will not be silent.  And that question is: what…
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Preparing the way…part the third

I don't know how you spent your lunch hours last week, but I spent most of mine describing in detail the Baptist distinctives of local church autonomy and soul freedom and just why it was not appropriate for the SBC to ask church communities to sign a statement of faith and belief.  That, combined with the other half of that luncheon discussion -- just what is meant by the formal process of discernment through which the majority of my classmates have just passed -- has left me feeling like I spent the last week in the tumbler of one of those rock polishing machines that I banished from the house over…
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Why do I talk about subversiveness all the time?

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook or Instagram, you might, from time to time, see me share something inspirational that I've read or seen, with a comment such as "Have  a subversive Saturday," or "Truth and subversiveness, all in one package."  I must admit, I have an intense obsession with the idea of subversiveness, and, as it naturally follows, with the use of the word subversive. This focus began in the early days of my training in spiritual companionship.  Maybe you know how it goes -- you've been asked to read a book to prepare for a class or a meeting, and there is this one phrase, a phrase that…
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Christmas 12: The Work Goes On

And with that, we come to the end of our 12 day journey together.  And at last, we tackle the title of Bruce Epperly's collection of reflections that have guided us.  Today, we consider our benediction. There was a plan to these days of words -- it was the plan of preparation.  Together, we have thought about the qualities of Christmas, like joy and wonder, and love.  Together, we have looked at what it means to let Christmas be something alive in us, not just a day or even a season.  And together, we have thought about the many obstacles in the way of living a Christmas-fueled life. Today, in…
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Christmas 11: A Vision of Something More

A vision of something more...isn't that what this gift of Christmas is all about?  Today, as Bruce Epperly again tackles the meaning of the Christmas season through the words of theologian Howard Thurman and his work The Mood of Christmas,  that is what we consider.  Thurman calls us to stand on "the growing edge" of our lives: Look well to the growing edge!  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree; the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves,…
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Christmas 10: Christmas Waits to be Born…Again

I have, over the years, come to the conclusion that there are two different Christmases -- the cultural Christmas, with its presents and parties and television specials, and the religious Christmas, that which springs from the life of the Church.  My time with the words of Bruce Epperly and Howard Thurman have convinced me that there is a third, never-spoken-of Christmas, the one that knows no time or place, the one that waits to be born in you and me and in this world each and every day: Where refugees seek deliverance that never comes, And the heart consumes itself, if it would live, Where little children age before their…
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Christmas 9: Light a Candle

If I had to guess, I would say that, if you are a person reading my words right now, you have seen one of the memes floating around the Internet-world this Christmas that featured quotations from Howard Thurman's work.  And I'll be honest -- it was just such a quotation that led me to  Bruce Epperly's The Work of Christmas and that led me to reflect on that work. And because of my fascination with what some might call a theology of light, it was today's focus of reflection that captured my spirit the most: I will light Candles this Christmas; Candles of joy despite all sadness, Candles of hope where despair…
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Christmas 8: Every Day is Christmas

I'll be honest -- it becomes more and more difficult to hold the Christmas thread as the days between December 25 and today grow in number. And even harder when the world around you is shouting "Happy New Year!" and preparing to go back to their routines of work and whatever tomorrow morning.  I suppose this is where the concept of the great both/and comes into play -- for today is indeed still Christmas and it is also the first day of a brand, spanking-new calendar year.  So, Happy New Year, and again, Merry Christmas. I am not surprised that Bruce Epperly captures this tension in his reflection today in The…
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Christmas 7: Wounds into Windows

We are halfway along our journey through the 12 days of Christmas with theologians Bruce Epperly and Howard Thurman.  Or, if you prefer, we are on the "seven swans a-swimming" verse of the old song.  It is also, for many of us, New Year's Eve, that time when we kiss (or kick) the old year into history and welcome our perception of a new slate of living, where we will be more responsible, more fit, thinner, and all-around-better-off. So I am not surprised to find that Epperly has chosen a passage for reflection that reminds us of the every day things in the story we are telling, in particular, the…
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