Christmas comes through worship. Luke’s Gospel opens with a priest worshipping in the Temple making the incense offering while the whole assembly prays. Mary will sing “my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior” On that first Christmas Eve, worship comes not in the Temple but out in the fields, with […]
Author Archives: paulrpurdue
What do you want for Christmas? What are you hoping for this Christmas? We ask each other “what do you want for Christmas?” That cute Post Office commercial has stuck an earworm in my head. “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do. Don’t want a doll. No dinky tinker toy. I […]
In the front yard of my grandparent’s house, there is a well. If you open the lid, cool air rushes up in the summer. The well may date to the first cabin built there well over 175 years ago. A geologist classified the farm soil as Eden Soil. Eden Soil contains huge slabs of limestone […]
No matter who wins this election, some of us will wake up anxious tomorrow. What we do with our anxiety or anger determines what sort of people we are. Will we hear the Good Shepherd calling us away from the unsteady herd ready to thunder over the next cliff? Will Jesus corral our racing hearts […]
First, we are deeply grateful to our Tullahoma FUMC family for helping Granny Due navigate church life. As our brothers and sisters in Christ, you gently guided Granny around our church home. You extended steady arms, offered countless re-introductions, and sat by her side. Your loving-kindness lifted our worries. To the staff, especially Theresa for […]
According to a Harris Poll, 52 percent of Americans are dealing with a high level of stress related to the election (Talking to Your Therapist about Election Anxiety- NYT Oct 20). This ugly election is fraying friendships, eroding empathy amid differences, and dissolving longstanding decency boundaries. With fewer friends, strained empathy, and muddied boundaries we […]
Back in my youth ministry days we gave Bibles to graduating Seniors and I usually wrote on the inside cover a version of Joshua 1:7-9: “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all (God’s) law; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so […]
This week a dear church friend implored me to get behind a candidate. In these anxious and ugly days, I am tempted to endorse a candidate, but as your shepherd I do not see this as my role. Growing up Baptist, we learned how the state persecuted early Baptists. We welcomed a separation of church […]
Why did it take our Methodist Church some 1956 years to live into Jesus’ Easter commission of women preachers? How do we square Paul’s teachings about women with the words and spirit of Jesus ? Why are we so slow to follow? Luke chapter 10 begins with Jesus sending out 72 disciples healing and proclaiming that “The kingdom of God has come near […]
My Grandmother commissioned a widowed neighbor, Joyce Montgomery, to paint their farm house. The folk-art painting stirs up feelings for “down home” where my mother and all her sibling were born. It’s lovely, but not an accurate portrait. The background should include a smokehouse, repair shop, root cellar, chicken coop, brooder house, and a large […]
pastorpaulpurdue 