Mrs. Fletcher first cried out these words into her emergency alert device in a 1989 television commercial, and within a few months they echoed from coast to coast, appearing in cool jokes among friends, as T-shirt slogans and in stand-up comedy routines (on-line memes were not yet a thing). The LifeCall company, in whose commercials […]
In today’s political climate, we’re all quite aware of the reality that there are people seeking asylum in the United States because of threatening situations in their home countries. They’re often referred to as aliens, which has negative connotations that make us think of how different they are from us and how uncomfortable they make […]
The new sermon series, begun last Sunday, is based on a word of exhortation from the Apostle Peter, in 2 Peter 1:1-8, and I introduced the symbol of a tree to represent the kind of solid, fruitful Christian life Peter is encouraging us to have. This image is not something Pastor Connie and I made […]
Jesus warned his disciples that they would face persecution for their faith in him: “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen […]
I recently came across this thought-provoking description of Heaven and Hell: Heaven is where the Police are British, the Chefs are French, the Mechanics are German, the Lovers are Italian and it’s all organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the Chefs are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, the Police are […]
Disclaimer: Nothing in this article should be seen as reflecting on my marriage to the lovely Judith, which has for 60 years been perfect, without spot or wrinkle, 100% fulfilling, 24/7. (Is that the way you wanted me to say it, Dear?) “Falling in love” is one of the most talked-about and least lived-out of […]
Rudyard Kipling died a month after I was born, so he represents to me the world that was passing away. I was in the eighth grade when I read The Jungle Book, and this is how my love of pristine nature began to dominate my imagination, leading me to my college major in the biological […]
Sometimes you hear about a Red Letter Day. That’s usually a reference to a special moment that should be remembered: a birthday or wedding anniversary, a graduation, a nation’s victory in battle. The use of this phrase goes way back to Roman Republican times, 500 years before Christ, when red numbers began being used for […]
When I came out of our house this morning to face another hot Southern California July day, I found myself singing the 1963 Nat King Cole song: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer Those days of soda and pretzels and beer Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer You’ll wish […]
Our last two Sunday sermons have been about The Hole in Your Soul. In the first, I used Psalm 42 to talk about the fact that all of us seem to have some feeling of emptiness inside that we aren’t able to fill. In the second, Pastor Connie used Psalm 63 to remind us that […]