Month: January 2022

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things [1 Corinthians 13:4-7]. A few days ago, I was on treacherous ground. I’m not speaking about the dusting of snow that Durham had received. I’m referring instead to the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, the 13th century philosopher/theologian. Knowing that the Lectionary appointed the First Corinthians 13:1-13 text as the Epistle reading for this Sunday, the…

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked [Luke 4:22] I remember well the delivery of my first sermon. It was May 1987. I’d been “posted” as a 36-year-old “field ed” intern at Saxapahaw UMC (Chatham County, NC) for the summer that followed my first year at Duke Div School. Nowadays, Saxapahaw is a chic little village, with trendy shops and cafes, catering to those who want to live in nearby Chapel Hill, but who can’t afford the zip code. Back in ’87, however, it was a sleepy little town on the Haw River, struggling…

When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now” [John 2:9-10, NRSV, a portion of the Gospel reading for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, RCL, Year C]. A joke circulated during my Divinity School days. No doubt it was first repeated decades before my study there (1986-89), and no doubt the riddle is still chuckled over…

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; …. [Matthew 2:1-3, a portion of the Gospel reading for the Epiphany of our Lord, RCL, Year C]. You’ve heard my story before. My name is Melchior. Long ago, I was a Zoroastrian priest from Persia. Because my colleagues and I liked to study and write (and…