Tag: light
-
“Lights, Nations, & Neighbors”
What does it mean to be “a light to the nations”? Do we need our passports? …
-
The Darkest Evening of the Year
science, and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” for the Winter Solstice
-
Loveliness
An early-morning drive in the spring sunshine. Noticing the first emerging blooms of Bradford pear and flowering quince. Mist still hovering in the woods, about to scatter. A wide drive, a welcome sign, the murmur of voices in a room down the corridor. Freshly-painted walls in the sanctuary. Fresh flowers on the table, bright in…
-
The Darkest Evening of the Year
According to timeanddate.com, sunset tonight is 5:27 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, after 9 hours, 30 minutes, and 22 seconds of daylight. That’s 15 seconds more daylight than we had last year on the same momentous occasion. I’m grateful for every extra second. I get this way every year, feeling a deep kinship with those ancient…
-
The Darkest Evening of the Year
Sunset tonight in our neighborhood is 5:26 p.m. – Eastern Standard Time. We will have had 9 hours, 30 minutes, and 7 seconds of [partly nominal] daylight. Tomorrow we will have three or four seconds more of it. And a few more seconds the day after that. I am someone who once received one of…
-
Epiphany
Our new interim pastor was out of town because of a death in the family – alas! – so we had a visiting preacher who reminded us of a quotation by Edith Wharton: There are two ways of spreading light: to be The candle or the mirror that reflects it. [The quote is from a…
-
Study Notes – Matthew 5 13-20
We are studying Matthew 5:13-20 for Sunday, July 7. This is the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount we began studying last week – and which we’ll be studying for the rest of the month, through the end of Matthew 5, and then skipping over to sections of chapter 7. In other words, we’ll…
-
Shabbat shalom
Chanukah does not need to be compared to any other religious observance, or celebrated in any out-of-proportion way. Chanukah stands on its own merit and deserves its own unique reputation and honored status in Jewish life – as a celebration of the uprising for religious freedom, as a celebration of the rededication of the Holy…
-
Temporary Morning Darkness
These days the alarm goes off before the sun is up. It feels like night. It feels like cold. It feels like time to sleep. It definitely does not feel like time to get out of bed and get to work. I really noticed it this morning. The switch to Standard Time just pushed it…
-
Fourth Sunday in Lent
In Sunday school we spent time thinking about what a record of elaborate formal national worship might say to us, or how it might serve as any kind of model for our own worship. We noted the attitude of humility Solomon adopts, and people shared stories of kneeling in prayer – interestingly, childhood memories, of…
-
Fifth Sunday of Easter
[A sermon on Jonah 2, with references to Acts 9, which was actually in the Revised Common Lectionary for last week … ] So Jonah’s prayer comes from a dark place; Jonah is in a dark place – not just metaphorically, the way we might mean a place of fear, or desperation, or regret, is…
Matters of Interpretation 