The Riverside Gathering Posts

You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father [John 15:14-15]. As I write these words, Jane and I are retreating on Pawleys Island with some of our closest friends. There are 10 of us—four couples, and two who’ve lost their husbands in recent years. All but two grew up in Gastonia. Everyone—save me—matriculated at Erskine College. One within the group was my second-grade sweetheart. Over many years,…

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road — the desert road — that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet [Acts 8:26-28, New International Version]. From time to time, I’ve shared several of the many Bible stories that the children at Olney Presbyterian Church (Gastonia, NC) re-enacted during…

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want [Psalm 23:1]. I have a push-pull relationship with the Twenty-Third Psalm. Oh, I recognize that if one asks 100 people which Psalm is their favorite, 97 will say “the 23rd.” Acknowledging its popularity, the Revised Common Lectionary includes the Psalm six times in its three-year cycle. As I have shared before, my most long-lived recollection of the Psalm is drawn from a Monday evening in 1957, when Todd and I stood on the Robinson School stage with our first-grade classmates and, having memorized the Psalm—King James Version, I’ll have you know—recited it more or less in unison before an assembly of…

They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have" [Luke 24:37-39, New International Version]. During my childhood and adolescent years at Olney Presbyterian in Gastonia, I was taught by elders in both a Presbyterian and familial sense that, at the time of the resurrection, our “resurrected bodies” would not be plagued with the sorts of pains, wounds, scars, and imperfections found in our former earthly…

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common [Acts 4:32]. Perhaps many of you have heard the one about the American Protestant who was rescued by sailors after he had been stranded alone for six years on a remote Pacific island. As the man gathered his meager belongings to join the sailors on board their ship, one of the sailors pointed to three small structures erected near the beach, asking the man what had been their function. The marooned man proudly pointed to the largest of the…

Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid [Mark 16:8]. As you likely know, over the past 1600 years or so, countless hours have been spent in study and barrels of ink have been spilled by Christians trying to discern the ending of the oldest Gospel. That is, of course, because the oldest manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel end abruptly with the verse noted above. Mark gives us no word about Mary Magdalene’s mistaking the risen Lord for a gardener [John 20:15]. Mark tells us nothing about “doubting Thomas [John 20:25].” With Mark, we don’t get to walk…

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it [Mark 11:1-2]. It has often been observed that Mark’s is the “impatient” Gospel. For example, it has no Advent story. We don’t see any shepherds. There are no gifts brought by the Magi. Luke’s Gospel gives us the story about the 12-year-old Jesus giving his parents a scare when he lingers in the Temple after Joseph…

Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor [John 12:24-25]. For the past five weeks, I’ve done what doesn’t come easy: I’ve tried to experience less. That is to say that, prior to Lent, I’d spent more than a year watching the prices…

Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. [Numbers 21:6]. In the OT reading appointed for this upcoming Sunday—Numbers 21:4-9 [the Fourth Sunday in Lent, RCL, Year B]—we encounter a story that many see as “weird with a capital W.” It’s one of those stories that can make one scratch his or her head. Does it truly depict the God we worship? You likely recall the story. It’s from the 40-year period during which the Israelites, having been released from Egyptian bondage, follow what appears to be a wandering Yahweh through the wilderness. And, as the Israelites are wont,…

And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery …” [Exodus 20:1-2]. The Old Testament lesson for this upcoming Sunday, the Third Sunday in Lent (RCL, Year B), is the familiar passage detailing the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20:1-17 (as opposed to the slightly different version found in Deuteronomy 5:6-21). As I sifted through some old notes on the text, my eye was drawn to an article written years ago by Joshua Green, former senior editor of The Atlantic, entitled “Roy and His Rock” [The Atlantic, October 2005]. Some of you, particularly our dear…