Eight children and eight adults sat along Mount Leconte’s cliff-tops watching the sun receding over the Smokies. It was so spectacularly beautiful. The sun hung full, pale, orange, and low over the Smoky Mountains until meeting the horizon when it squished together and disappeared. A thousand fading streams of lilac and gold slowly turned to […]
Author Archives: paulrpurdue
There are twelve chapters of context before we get to the pinnacle of the Apostle Paul’s writing, 1 Corinthians 13. Paul, along with Priscilla and Aquila, worked in Corinth for at least 18 months planting the church that he writes to. The larger church did not save the Corinthians’ letters to Paul, but Paul’s letters […]
During my Monday morning devotional time: El Paso, Dayton, Charlestown, Boston, Antioch kept clouding my prayers. Most Mondays, I dive into the week’s Scriptures. This Monday, nothing seemed to happen. The news haunted my holy space. After conversation with Kate, Heather, Darren and Gayle I knew this lament was not just my own. Lament […]
When Connie and I first married, we lived ten minutes away from my parents. My dad had a great workshop where I often worked on projects. One night dad sat on a stool visiting while I transformed a $10 garage sale find into what even today is our kitchen table. As Dad sipped iced coffee, […]
Last week, Sarah McWhirt-Toler shared how our lives can fill up with to-do lists that seem to crowd out life. She asked, “What possessions do we need to shed so that we might be present with God?” Jesus had quite a to-do list: heal the sick, proclaim the Good News, feed the hungry, save the […]
When Trump’s crowd chanted “send her back” they echoed or amplified the president’s tweet: “why don’t they go back?” Sympathy for such rhetoric stands in opposition to Christian Scriptures. Jesus’ core teaching requires us to love our neighbors in the same manner we love ourselves. God will judge our lives by the way we welcome […]
With a beloved parable like the Good Samaritan we easily neglect the stories’ context: “A legal expert stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to gain eternal life?’ Jesus replied, ‘What is written in the law? How do you interpret it?’ He responded, ‘You must love the Lord your […]
Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. (Matthew 4:23) Have you ever noticed how Jesus always seemed to be giving away free healthcare? Jesus called the Twelve together, gave them power and authority… and sent […]
The year after Mrs. Her-Name-Withheld read my best dyslexic sentences aloud to her class, my mother coaxed me into repeating the fourth grade at a new school. At Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary I found community, structure, love, and friends. I loved it! Sometimes we chanted like monks at lunch, “Would you trade your […]
June 28, 2019 Dear Belmont friends, I am not really sure just where to start with the good news from our Tennessee Annual Conference 2019. I might start by mentioning our youth reading an open letter to the Tennessee Conference, five Belmonters being elected to General or Jurisdictional Conference in 2020, the Conference voting in […]
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