February 2023

Happy Lent Y’all! Sometimes when I’m feeling a need for humility, I’ll look up what I think to be a simple concept on my favorite giant-headed website – the online version of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries). Since Lent is a season to embrace humility, I typed in the word “sin” as a search subject. Wow! I can’t think of any other three-lettered word that could generate so lengthy a definition. The Stanford Encyclopedia article on sin went on for

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. Today’s Gospel passage is the conclusion of Chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel, which is known as The Sermon on the Mount. This chapter contains some of the most direct, and hardest to follow, teachings of Jesus. In each section of this chapter, Jesus challenges His followers (and, of course, all of us) to reject sin and to become the beautiful, loving people that God originally created. It begins with the list

You are the light of the world…your light must shine before others. In 1988, President George H. W. Bush described his vision for an engaged and generous society in this way: “For we are a nation of communities…all of them varied, voluntary and unique…a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.” He was encouraging a spirit of volunteerism that, if embraced by all, would replace the expensive and often ineffective efforts