Tag Archives: Lent – 2016

March 21, 2016 If the parent in this story is God, I am responsible to start walking back – sorry Calvin. If the parent in this story is God, then my personal cracking open the door, my stingy and grudging … Continue reading →

March 19, 2016 … many thanks to many meetings God, grant me the serenity to accept the consequences of having prodigals in my life – watching the waste of health and money, energy expended for so little, relationships lost forever, … Continue reading →

March 18, 2016 (Luke 15:11-32 and Luke 19:36, and remembering that no palms are mentioned in Luke) They went up to Jerusalem for Passover that year, a larger family, if not a healed one — the younger child still tangled in … Continue reading →

March 16, 2016 This is the one I have dreaded to write — for in all my envisioning of this parable I’ve never imagined the elder sibling walking away. (Perhaps you’ve noticed.) I know I need to face that resolution … Continue reading →

On what authority do you, an only child, whose longtime partner is an only child write all this Lent long about the relationship between siblings — their love and hate, anger, play, and loss, responsibilities shirked and shared, intricate connections … Continue reading →

March 12, 2016   Are we ready for the Easter prodigals, the church runaways sitting right next to the righteous – potluck, mission trip, prayer shawl siblings, the deaconopledgers? After all, we have wasted money, energy and discernment on hospitality … Continue reading →

March 12, 2016 It was Mary’s favorite parable. She was always a dreamer, never a prodigal – living large and loose out there on the edge of things. Even Martha made wild and crazy new recipes, and she got right … Continue reading →

March 11, 2016 Pause, preachers, do not tell this parable without thinking about this verse. But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am … Continue reading →

March 9, 2016 I want another story … And the world has moved on from my grief, from the birth or the marriage, from the divorce, the empty nest, the move to assisted living. They’ve sent flowers or notes helped … Continue reading →

March 8, 2016 Write thank you notes to a pig farmer, also sponsor, probation officer, several friends, a stranger I’ll never track down. Work like a slave. Scratch that — work hard, and do it without calling attention to myself. … Continue reading →