The Costa Concordia has been the focus of the news over the past few days. If you’ve been hiding under a rock, the Concordia is an Italian cruise ship that ran aground in Tuscany this past weekend. Initial reports point to human error for a tragedy that resulted in the loss of upward of three…
The Puzzle of Marriage
It is said that Socrates was asked by a young man whether or not he would recommend marriage, Socrates replied by saying “By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you will become happy; and if you get a bad one, you will become a philosopher and the world needs more philosophers.”Last week…
Unseen Blessings
I got up the other day and there was just a light dusting of snow on the ground. When I looked out the window I saw several set of tracks crossing the front lawn. On closer examination, I realized that they were deer tracks where several deer had crossed the yard sometime through the night. …
The Puzzle of Family
It was Tolstoy who said “All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”Have you ever stopped to think that both the Old Testament and the New Testament start with the story of a family? And the bible itself is a collection of family stories. There are happy families…
Priests with Brooms
I’m not quite ready to leave Christmas yet, at least not in the Penn. Did you read about the fight that broke out in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity during the Christmas season? The Church of the Nativity is the church built over the site where some believe Jesus was born. The incident made the…
Brand New Year Same Old Vision
Well here we are about 2000 years down the road from that first church. I’m sure if Peter and John had of ever discussed the future of the Christian church that they could not have envisioned what it would be like 2000 years later. I mean 2000 years! The Jewish religion wasn’t even 2000 years…
What Next?
WELL, CHRISTMAS HAS COME and gone and New Year’s Eve is just a memory. How are you feeling about 2012? Are you excited? Are you cautious? Are you simply resigned to it happening?The reality is that, regardless of how we feel about the coming year, there is a very good chance that it is going…
A Reflection of Tomorrow
A Reflection of TomorrowSo here is the question: When do your put Christmas away? We usually do it on New Year’s Day. You know; take down the tree and Christmas cards, remove the lights from outside the house, pack up the nativity scene. And before the first day of the new year is finished so…
A Reflection of the Cradle and Grave
Transitions, in all of our lives there are transitions. Times when our lives change and the lives of those around us change. You know what I’m talking about because there are events that you are thinking about even as I speak. Births, deaths, graduations, weddings, baptisms. Transitions, times when our lives change. And we have…
Keeping Christ in Christian
You find truth in some of the strangest places. I was reading an article online a couple of weeks ago, Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell was interviewing atheist Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens who passed away last week, talk about “all dressed up and no place to go”, was the author of “God is not Great: How Religion…