Hey, I showed up again this morning, still here, thank you, God. A 9 mph breeze that at 74° and 96% is more damp than cool is moving along Scipio Creek here in Apalachicola as I sit at the table on this outside screen porch listening to predawn river sounds and contemplate what to say to whoever might come to Trinity Church this morning. Matthew’s gospel for today is about Jesus and Caesar’s Coin. The church lectionary puts it in Stewardship Season so we can preach a pledging and tithing sermon, but I did that quite enough in my pulpit years, so what about Exodus, Moses up on the holy mountain with The Lord. Or better yet, First Thessalonians, Paul’s first extant letter that seems doctrinally significant, but that is so obscure to the minds of most people in the pew. Maybe I can share something they’ll enjoy knowing.  Homiletically I shall be repetitive so they Get It, but hopefully not obnoxiously repetitive. Or, if obnoxious, amen, so be it. Later on, I’ll print the ...

Arriving yesterday before we could check in at the hotel, we stopped by Trinity Church to pick up the key that was waiting for me, then parked on the riverfront downtown,  ate a salmon sandwich brought from 7H for a light lunch, afterward returning to the church to wander around inside, reminisce a bit not overly or maudlin, snap pictures, head to the hotel and have a rest before the wedding rehearsal. In our time here, my entering Trinity Church was always the back door, through the sacristy. So my first glimpse was never the beautiful gothic-style inscription “The Lord is in His Holy Temple.” at ceiling level over the front wall and that strikes who enters the front door,  but the one over the balcony that probably most worshipers and visitors never notice. It was lifted from the Book of Common Prayer, Psalm 93 of the Coverdale Psalter Thy testimonies, O LORD, are very sure: *  Holiness Becometh Thine House for Ever.  which a...

My greatest moment of freedom began at my end of many long years of hiding, on September 14, 1980, the day I started seminary at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg. It was my forty-fifth birthday. Something, a feeling, of surrendering to one’s destiny. Giving in. Of letting loose, letting go. Some, not necessarily I, might say letting go and letting God. That day was like putting on my name, and realizing it was who I had always been and now I was real. Maybe like the velveteen rabbit. That seems, but for me actually is not, a stretch for a start to this morning’s thought process about our OT lesson for day after tomorrow, this coming Sunday morning. We’re still in Exodus. Moses is asking to know better יְהוָ֔ה whom, at great risk, Moses has been trusting. I remember the first quiz in my Old Testament class at LTSG: in each of a series of questions, we were given a word or two to identify. One question was “God’s behind.” Which seemed to me, a totally beginning novice at fooli...

Outside on 7H porch, easily the clearest night in a million years, Orion in my face, and Sirius, brightest being in our sky, patiently, brilliantly, obediently below the Hunter. A tug rumblingly, chug chuggingly pushing her barge past and round the bend to head north toward Hathaway Bridge and on I suppose, unless they’re stopping at the Port west terminal, but more likely they’re making along the intracoastal waterway, will pass Mary Esther later this morning. I’m adding tugboat captain back to that list of next life possibilities.  Again the weather, almost as autumnal as this time yesterday, 64° and 80%. Weather online says wind at 5 mph, but up here at Level Seven it’s blowing steady higher than that.   Anu Garg this morning with hagiology, easily recognizable as word and holy, he says study of saints, the saints. Who else has saints? Anyway then, Hagia Sophia, Saint Sophia, Holy Sophia cathedral mosque in Constantinople now Istanbul, Turkey. And also, Τρισάγι...

Clear blue and cloudless, 55° 69% a perfect fall morning on the Florida Gulf Coast. I’m looking across StAndrewsBay over Shell Island into the Gulf of Mexico on a day so perfectly fall, autumn, that we had oatmeal for breakfast, steel-cut or some such variety. A little crunch, and I like mine varying, various depending on day and mood, sometimes lots of stuff, this morning salt and pepper and a pat of butter. Fall won’t last, though, maybe a couple of days before summer returns and shifts back and forth with cool versus too warm and muggy until cool settles in. Maybe a few hours of winter a day or two along in January, then in March some bitter cold windy days only describable as "raw." S o raw that this coming March I may go visit the mountains on the far side of the sun, a great-grandfather has a small cabin there, of clay and wattles made.   Ah, but today … Driving out to Laguna Beach late this morning to change water into wine and lunch with a fellow clergyman...

62° 72% and sitting here with open sliding door onto 7H porch, perhaps fall has come at last.  What for sure has come at last is news from the astronomy community that deepens our knowledge of our universe, about binary neutron stars colliding,  that renews my ongoing high anxiety indecision about whether in my next life to be a Navy fighter pilot or a weatherperson or an astronomer or, ἰδού, a shepherd in the hills keeping watch o’er flocks by night and lasering wolves that come close.  My dream is that between incarnations there’ll be enough time to come ashore as a category 5 hurricane. For sure, I’ll be driving that 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme hardtop coupe across the night sky.  This week a beloved asked me, “Papa, of all the cars you’ve owned, what was your favorite?” My answer usually has been that new red 2001 Tahoe we bought on 9/11; but all things considered, let the reader understand, I have to go with the Olds. See, ἰδού, ...

75° 89% cloudy, no sky visible, just clouds. Maybe the humidity is the reason early morning felt too close to sit on 7H porch after gazing round. Out the Beck Door for PCNH and to the rail to look over StAndrews, gunshots, loud, not rapid but ten or a dozen, close by, about 3:15 no sirens following. Friday wedding rehearsal. Saturday wedding. Sunday morning great adult SS class, good scripture basis and lively discussion, don’t like the tables crowded though so will ask for another table in the library classroom; and with new carpet installation need to sort furniture back to home spots, not a problem and maybe change something. Noon, nursing home visit with communion. Pleasant newcomers’ gathering yesterday afternoon, hosted by vestry and staff. Home to bed, might have been asleep by seven-thirty, not sure. Maybe it was eight-fifteen, IDK. Today: walk, pills, nap, shower, breakfast, staff meeting, flu shot. Graveside service this afternoon. First day of the rest of my life....