Jan 24, 2022 | Pondering and Kindling
“Can praying combat crime?” That was the title of the lead article in our newspaper back in mid-December. (12-11-21) A small group of ministers met on the banks of the Mississippi River to pray for our city which is the nation’s second-poorest city, and has the...
Jan 15, 2022 | Pondering and Kindling
The title of my blog today is a familiar word, “Let us now praise famous men.” It is the beginning of a passage in The Wisdom of Sirach. The entire sentence is, “Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us”. In a recent blog I talked about...
Jan 8, 2022 | Pondering and Kindling
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” I don’t know when I first heard that word, or who said it. It sounded bold and strong. In reflection, my hunch is that whomever coined that singsong wisdom was probably in some dark...
Jan 3, 2022 | Pondering and Kindling
Our city, Memphis, is known for a lot of things in a lot of different ways; one big way: our music. It’s difficult to argue against the fact that we are the homeplace of “the birth of blues.” Our most famous person among a huge cast of well known musicians is Elvis...
Dec 27, 2021 | Pondering and Kindling
In my last blog I talked about the light of Christmas, reflecting on a text of Scripture that has been a source of my Christmas meditation and reflection for over fifty years; For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to...
Dec 20, 2021 | Pondering and Kindling
I am sure I had read the particular passage of Scripture before, but it never hit me as it did that day over fifty years ago. It penetrated to the deepest core of my being, enveloped my soul, and has been a part of me since. Every year, during the Advent/Christmas...
