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to Sunday Morning Memories
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| April 14, 2002 | It is a spring morning. Dozens of birds sing |
| April 21,2002 | It is a few minutes before 7 a.m. and still raining. |
| April 28, 2002 | The first thing I notice outside today is the wind. |
| May 5, 2002 | This is the week of lilac and iris. |
| May 12, 2002 | Happy Mother’s Day. |
| May 19, 2002 | I arrived home last night about 9:30 |
| May 26, 2002 | It is a beautiful, crisp, spring morning. |
| June 2, 2002 | I watched my daughter Alison graduate |
| June 9, 2002 | I returned last night from our annual conference |
| June 16, 2002 | Happy Father’s Day |
| June 23, 2002 | It’s a few minutes before 6 a.m. |
| (Mike camping with Grace group) | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| July 7, 2002 | The coffee is dripping in the kitchen. |
| July 14, 2002 | A new day has dawned clear and cool and beautiful. |
| (Mike with youth on mission trip) | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| July 28, 2002 | We got in last night a few minutes before midnight |
| (Mike on vacation God knows where!) | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| August 11, 2002 | I’ve been completely baptized in the quiet liveliness |
| August 18, 2002 | ...Alison’s homemade oatmeal bread... |
| August 25, 2002 | Yesterday was Urbana’s Sweet Corn Festival |
| September 1, 2002 | ...the sun, still orange, has just appeared... |
| September 8, 2002 | On Friday morning I took the train to Chicago |
| September 15, 2002 | ...this morning, I could see by the damp street... |
| September 22, 2002 | I often think that fall is my favorite season. |
| September 29, 2002 | I arrived home from my week in the monastery |
| October 6, 2002 | The new day is still blanketed in darkness |
| November 3, 2002 | ...my first sense is one of 'chill.' |
| November 10, 2002 | My backyard looks funny this morning. |
| November 17, 2002 | The sky has quietly and stealthily swelled into THE story of the new day. |
| January 5, 2003 | This past week we welcomed a new year |
| January 12, 2003 | One of the most helpful books...David Ford's The Shape of Living |
| January 19, 2003 | Outdoors it is stunningly beautiful and painful |
| January 26, 2003 | ...conversation with Roger Ross...the lead pastor at New Horizon UMC |
| February 2, 2003 | As I look at the sky this morning, I am haunted by the specter |
| February 9, 2003 | Puffs of smoke drift eastward from my neighbor's chimney |
| February 16, 2003 | Snow. It is a little past 6:30 a.m. |
| February 23, 2003 | Two cardinals have appeared this morning |
| March 2, 2003 | It felt chilly this morning--even before I got out of bed. |
| Mike's Letter March 16, 2003 | read this Sunday Letter more carefully than usual |
| Mike's Letter April 6, 2003 | I would rather be warming my hands on my coffee cup |
| Mike's Sunday Letter--April 13, 2003 | I am scanning the eastern sky for the sun to appear |
| Mike's Letter for Easter 2003 | I imagine that first Easter. It was not overly joyful at first. |
| Mike's Sunday Letter--May 4, 2003 | I woke up in Urbana this morning. |
| Mike's Sunday Letter--May 11, 2003 | It is a day of wind. |
| Mike's Sunday Letter for May 18, 2003 | It is a gentle, peaceful morning |
| Mike's Letter 6/1/03 | The sun was up a bit before me this morning |
| Mike: CUBS BEAT YANKEES! | The Cubs are playing the Yankees |
| Letter from Mike, June 22, 2003 | Birds from all over the city flock to it |
| Mike's Letter, June 29, 2003 | I am at a standoff with an anonymous rabbit. |
| Mike's Letter - July 6 | Today is my second anniversary as the pastor of Grace Church. |
| Pastor Mike's Letter - 7/13/03 | Grace Church and evangelism |
| Mike's letter--July 20, 2003 | ...quietness...this morning is a balance to the church...busy, busy, busy |
|
(Healing time for Mike) |
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| Mike's Letter - 8/31/03 | The first creatures to draw my attention this morning were squirrels. |
| Mike's Letter- Sept 7, 2003 | The morning feels gentle and refreshing today. |
| Mike's Letter -- Sept. 14, 2003 | My first awareness of the morning was of its darkness. |
| Mike's Letter -- Sept. 21, 2003 | I’ve been cold the last couple nights and mornings. |
| Mike's Letter - Sept 28, 2003 | I am anticipating autumn’s most dazzling sight |
| Mike's Letter - October 5, 2003 | ...first thing I notice outside this morning is the cloud cover |
| Mike's Letter - October 12, 2003 | I’m thinking I have the wrong radio station on my clock alarm. |
| Mike's Letter - October 19, 2003 | We are inundated with autumnness. |
| Mike's Letter - October 26, 2003 | ...documentary last night on Antarctica. I woke up at 1:59 a.m. shivering. |
| Mike's Letter - 11/2/03 | The tree outside my study window has lost its leaves. |
| Mike's Letter - 11/9/02 | It’s about midnight. The house is quiet |
| Mike's Letter - 11-16-03 | I woke this morning to fog and furious Italian music. |
| Mike's Letter - November 23, 2003 | I’ve engaged the sights and sounds of my backyard thousands of times. |
| Mike's Letter - November 30, 2003 | It’s a colder morning than we’ve had in some time. |
| Mike's Letter - December 7, 2003 | The eastern sky has horizontal stripes of lavender and pink |
| Mike's Letter - December 14, 2003 | The outdoors is dusted with snow this morning |
| Mike's Letter - December 21, 2003 | As I look out my window into the backyard this morning, I think I am watching a silent movie. |
| Languishing in Fort Myers, FL | |
| Mike's Letter, January 4, 2003 | The girls and I rolled in about 11 p.m. Friday night |
| Mike's Letter - January 11, 2004 | The first thing I notice this morning is the cold. |
| Mike's Letter - January 18, 2004 | The clock has just chimed six times. |
| Mike's Letter - January 25, 2004 | The wind is whistling and howling and chilling the house |
| Mike's Letter - February 1, 2004 | I have just been sitting in front of the fireplace with the cat on my lap. |
| Mike's Letter - February 8, 2004 | The cat is wanting attention this morning. |
| Mike's Letter - February 15, 2004 | It's 6:30 a. m. and it feels strange to be writing to you in the daylight. |
| Mike Letter - 2/29/04 | My daughter Alison is taking her second annual polar plunge |
| Mike Letter - 3/7/04 | Daylight is arriving earlier and earlier |
| Mike Letter - 3/14/04 | My first sense of this new day is of the chill in the air |
| Pastor Mike's Letter- 3/21/04 | The sun is pouring through my window so brightly this morning that I can’t see my computer screen. |
| Pastor Mike's Letter - 3-28-04 | It is a spring morning, beyond doubt. |
| Pastor Mike's Letter - Palm Sunday | It dawns a day of simple colors. |
| Pastor Mike's Easter Letter | I’m writing to you a little before midnight. |
| From the Pastor - April 18, 2004 | I awaken increasingly conscious of all that would have my attention this day. |
| From the Pastor - April 25, 2004 | All the trees in my backyard have leaves. |
| Mike's Letter - June 13, 2004 | Mindy and I arrived home a little after midnight this past Tuesday. |
| Mike's Letter - June 20, 2004 | Happy Father’s Day. I’m not sure what my own father is doing today |
| Mike's Letter - June 27, 2004 | It is an emerald morning in Urbana, a little after six a.m. |
| Mike's Letter - July 4, 2004 | The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. |
| Mike's Letter - July 11, 2004 | The morning itself has a mood. |
| Mike's Letter - August 8, 2004 | My first action of the day was to get out of bed, shuffle to the window, and check the driveway to make sure I had a car this morning. |
| Sunday Morning - From the Pastor - 9/12/04 | Some people showed up to tear the roof off of my house... |
| Sunday Morning - From the Pastor 9/19/04 | It is a not-quite-fall, not-quite-summer morning. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - September 26,2004 | It was nice to go to sleep last night with a roof over my head. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - October 3, 2004 | Every fall I try to spend a week as a guest in the Benedictine monastery. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - October 10, 2004 | ...the sky in the east is light blue with horizontal streaks of pink clouds. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - October 17, 2004 | ...the earth has not yet rolled over enough to let Champaign County glimpse the sun. |
| A Tribute to Dale Hubert - Pastor Mike 10-24-04 | It could be argued that the most significant of all the leaders in Grace Church’s 105-year history was Dale Hubert. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - Oct. 31, 2004 | I forgot to set my clocks back last night. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 7, 2004 | There’s a squirrel race going on in the backyard. |
| From the Pastor - November 14, 2004 | Sometimes I can fix it. And sometimes I can’t. |
| From the Pastor - November 21, 2004 | ...the outdoors is colored entirely in calming gray... |
| From the Pastor - November 28, 2004 | There is a stillness, a peacefulness to this morning... |
| From the Pastor - December 5, 2004 | I’m getting to where I like spending time with the confirmation class. |
| From the Pastor - December 12, 2004 | I finally started my Christmas shopping yesterday. |
| From the Pastor - December 19, 2004 | The decorative windmill in Gary and Audrey’s yard is blowing furiously. |
| From the Pastor - December 26, 2004 | The last of the Christmas decorating began when the sun set last night: |
| Sunday Morning from The Pastor - January 9,2005 | The girls and I got in about 6 p.m. yesterday from a 3500 mile road trip to Florida. |
| From the Pastor - January 16, 2005 | We awaken to a new day of shriveled temperatures. Another layer of snowdust fell during the night. |
| From the Pastor - January 23, 2005 | It is seven degrees this morning. The sky at this moment is a mix of pastel blues and reds. |
| From the Pastor - January 30, 2005 | It’s all snow this morning. The entire neighborhood is gilded in snow. |
| From the Pastor - February 6, 2005 | The sky simply blushed this morning at 6:45. (with A Tribute to Patsy Hammond) |
| From the Pastor - February 13, 2005 | The sky is black in this early morning hour, without definition. But other colors will emerge soon |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - February 20,2005 | It is a wet morning. The ground is soaked. The air is still, as though any breeze has been dampened into submissiveness |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 27, 2005 | Spring is nudging its way into our lives. Each morning is a little brighter than the one before. |
| From the Pastor - March 6, 2005 | The sun is just a few degrees over the horizon and a blazing white. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - March 13, 2005 | Maybe I got out of bed on the wrong side this morning. |
| From the Pastor - March 20, 2005 | It is still sort of spring and still sort of winter. The birds are having choir practice in the back yard. |
| Easter Letter from the Pastor | I am writing this just a few minutes after midnight, Easter Day. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 3, 2005 | We continue to wish each other happy Easter this morning. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - April 10, 2005 | The birds are all atwitter this morning. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 17, 2005 | The sun rose about 20 minutes ago. It is now bright white, making me squint |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 24, 2005 | ...the joys of this particular morning are more complex than those we awoke to several days ago. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 1, 2005 |
This is the week of the purple. Purple week. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - May 8,2005 | Today is...the seventh Sunday of Easter, Ascension Sunday, Mother’s Day, the Festival of the Christian Home Sunday, and Rural Life Sunday. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 15, 2005 | Each Sunday morning I take up my watch at the study window and share what my eyes see and my ears hear. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - May 22, 2005 | Creation nudged me awake even before the alarm clock this morning. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 29, 2005 | An adolescent rabbit scurries across my yard |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - June 5, 2005 | When I walked out the front door this morning, I was greeted with the bold orange of the tiger lily. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - June 19,2005 | It’s an invigorating morning air: punctuated by bold cardinal tunes and mourning dove complaints. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - June 26, 2005 | It’s a little after 7 a.m. and the outdoors is already warm, the air thick. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 3, 2005 | It is a glistening morning, a little after 7 a.m. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 10, 2005 | A wisp of a breeze enhances the comfort and graciousness of the morning. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 17, 2005 | It is a muggy morning, the portion the Midwest shares in a gulf hurricane. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 31, 2005 | Our church’s traveling mission team (11 of us) pulled into the church parking lot yesterday at 2:30 p.m. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - August 21, 2005 | The kids and I got in from a 12 day vacation Thursday evening. We tent camped in New Jersey and Maryland the whole time. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - August 28,2005 | In my walk around the neighborhood this morning, I was noticing the quiet of the outdoors. |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - September 4, 2005 | ...such a pleasant environment, cool and quiet, my first thoughts were about the contrast between here and there. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - September 11, 2005 | A long time ago, there was a stretch of coast where many ships tended to wreck. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - September 18, 2005 | ...cool in a relieving way, and crisp in a manner that invigorates. Autumn is my favorite season. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - September 25, 2005 | ...It started out as a meandering...There was a distant rumble of thunder. The rain became uncomfortable. And my meandering gait evolved into a resolute stride toward home. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 2, 2005 | I was blessed to spend most of the past week in retreat at the Benedictine Monastery in Madison, Wisconsin. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 9, 2005 |
Once we got adjusted to the fact that the festival was on the way rather than fully arrived, we had a great time. And that is my parable for both the Kingdom of God and Grace Church. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 16, 2005 | The cat has decided to join me this morning as I write to you. It took a moment for me to establish that she cannot sit on my keyboard. Nor is she going to drink my grapefruit juice while I write. So we have compromised and decided that while I’m on the keyboard, she’ll be on the dictionary. She’s sitting in section “D,” her tail flirting with “disaster.” |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 23, 2005 | Our family went to the Illini football game last night. |
| Mike and Jie's Wedding Day(October 29, 2005) ! | Congratulations! |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 6, 2005 | Jie and I observed our first week of marriage yesterday, a week that has been enriched by the warm congratulations we have received from all of you. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 13, 2005 | This coming Thursday night we will hold our charge conference at First United Methodist Church in Urbana, 7 p.m. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 27, 2005 | If left unguarded, even the soul can get cold. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - December 4, 2005 | Okay, can a coffeepot really be a numinous presence in a kitchen? And what does numinous mean, anyway? |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - December 11, 2005 | These are days when roads are treacherous. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - December 18, 2005 | I’ve been reading lately about churches that will NOT have worship next Sunday—because it’s Christmas. |
| Christmas Day Letter - From the Pastor | Christmas Day dawns wet and gray this year. The snow that has blanketed our town for the past weeks is receding. It is the kind of day that encourages us to find our enjoyment indoors. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January 8, 2006 | The clock says it is morning. But outside my window, it is still the deep of the night. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January 15, 2006 | Since it is dark, before sunrise, I can’t see anything outside. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January 29, 2006 | Day by day, the light increases and the dark is receding. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 5, 2006 | It is a little before 7 a.m. and it is a blue moment. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 12, 2006 | ...all we can do is let it wash over us and through us and carry us into its mystery. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 19, 2006 | Our individual lives are shaped by bits and pieces of just about everything. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 26, 2006 |
This week is the beginning of Lent, 2006. We will mark the occasion with our traditional Ash Wednesday worship on this Wednesday at 7:30 |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - March 5, 2006 | How is it that the weather forecaster can make a mess sound like a dessert? |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - March 12. 2006 | The morning begins with plugging everything back in. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - March 19, 2006 | I find myself checking the outdoors with an edge of impatience. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - March 26, 2006 | It’s 30 degrees out. But these birds act as though the morning was sunny, summery, and sensuous. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 2, 2006 | It is a tug of war inside me this morning. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 9, 2006 | In 12 days, I’ll be leaving for China to spend 4 weeks with my wife. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 21, 2006 | This weekend marks my return to Urbana from living the last month in Communist China. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 28, 2006 | Memorial Day began in the midst of the Civil War. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - June 4, 2006 | We had us a big wedding here yesterday afternoon. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - June 18, 2006 | This last Sunday morning in springtime afforded a charming setting: sitting on the front porch with a cup of coffee and observing the neighborhood. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - June 25, 2006 | A couple weeks ago, Herschel Cline phoned to tell me he had a surprise, and would I have a few minutes to drop by his house. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 2, 2006 | I enjoyed sleeping in my own bed last night, after returning home from a seven day mission trip with the youth group to Hannibal, Missouri. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 9, 2006 | I bought a bag of green beans at the farmer’s market yesterday and cooked them for supper. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 16, 2006 | These seem to be days of attending things. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 23, 2006 | Today is my middle daughter’s 22nd birthday. Happy birthday, Alison. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 30, 2006 | Our family had this trained dog several years back, Hannah. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - August 6, 2006 | People act different at 6 a.m. They are more pleasant, more naïve, more to mind their own business. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - August 13, 2006 | And so it is that summer rolls toward its fulfillment. Thanks be to God for all its wonders, pleasures, and playfulness. --Mike |
| Sunday Morning From the Pastor - August 20, 2006 | I think that a relationship with another person (or group of people) only becomes mature when people inadvertently wander into the gravity of each other’s suffering. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - August 27, 2006 | I saw a hypnotist entertaining people at the state fair this year. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - September 3, 2006 | I am surrounded by the sheer peacefulness of this Sunday morning, a little after six. A solitary cricket seems to have its “on button” stuck. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - September 10, 2006 | There is a scent of rain in the air this cool and cloud covered morning. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - September 17, 2006 | One day: a funeral, a wedding, a bon voyage party. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - September 24, 2006 | We hosted two missionaries from the Congo last Sunday. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 1, 2006 | ...the sky is deep black, made majestic by tiny starlight splashed from horizon to horizon. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 8, 2006 | I’ve been a pilgrim in the United Methodist Ministry for 34 years now (last weekend). |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 15, 2006 | A white tailed rabbit makes a halting journey across the backyard. I have to strain my eyes to see, not because I have an eye problem, but because the cosmos itself has not yet brought me to the point of seeing well. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - For October 22, 2006 | I'm writing from Nanjing, China, this morning: a city of over 5 million people. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 29, 2006 | Greetings from Nanjing, China. As you gather for worship this morning, it will already be late Sunday evening here in China. Today is the first wedding anniversary for Jie and me. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 5, 2006 | (36 hours after returning from China) And on this quiet Sunday morning, alone in my study, I am conscious of all that feels so far away: in space, in time, in understanding. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 12, 2006 | ...I think of how God plants a dozen surprise mercies in each new day—for each one of us... |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 19, 2006 | As I await the dawn of Sunday on this Thanksgiving week, my eyes and ears and memory roam about—counting blessings. When we count our blessings, we plant seeds in our souls that eventually bloom into full gratitude. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 26, 2006 | And while we are on time disorientation, is it Christmas yet, or not? |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - December 3, 2006 | A white microwave seems too precise for me. I’m a “brown oven” cook. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - December 10, 2006 | Gary and Audrey held their annual Sunday School Christmas party Friday night. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - December 17, 2006 | We all hope: that the divides of distance, death, and disarray might be dissolved in the mysterious grace of God that flows from a Bethlehem manger even to us. --Mike |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - December 24, 2006 | So in the midst of organized and messy Christmas celebrations, thanks be to God. Merry Christmas. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - December 31, 2006 | I find myself drifting back across 2006 and pondering its gains and losses, its surprises, its moments of transformation. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January 7, 2007 | My sermon series this month is on how to cope with difficult people. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January 14, 2007 | Yesterday was Mindy’s birthday. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January21, 2007 | All his troubles came right after I met him. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January 28, 2007 | The cat wants out. That’s what she gets for being illiterate and not able to read the thermometer. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 4, 2007 | I’m thinking of things I don’t want to write about this morning. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 11, 2007 | And as I pondered the day’s miracle, I begin to wonder how Jesus did change water into wine? |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 18, 2007 | Today is the Chinese New Year |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 25, 2007 | Today is the first Sunday of Lent |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - March 4, 2007 | But as we move deeper into the season of Lent, there is more light at this hour... |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - March 25, 2007 | Mindy and Alison and I took a quick trip to Washington D.C. this past week. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 1, 2007 | Today is the first day of Holy Week. It is the most sacred time of the year for Christians. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 15, 2007 | It’s been two weeks now since I last wrote to you. In that span, we have gone from winter to spring and back to winter again, we have celebrated Holy Week and Easter Sunday, I have conducted 12 worship services, started a new spiritual retreat project in the congregation, welcomed Scarlette to America and into my home, buried a church member, spent two days in Springfield on a conference project, and witnessed the cat use up at least three of her nine lives. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 22, 2007 | God ...figured out that every act of creation is only fulfilled when the creator makes a moment to let it go. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 6, 2007 | There is comfort in the familiar. And I am glad to be around home all spring. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 13, 2007 | Here is the plan: 1) my daughter Alison graduates from the University of Illinois today... |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 20, 2007 | It seems I’ve been around people all week who are “hitting the reset button.” |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 27, 2007 | One of the advantages of being a Chinese/American family is that we have double the number of holidays. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - June 3, 2007 | It feels like a jungle out there this morning. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - June 10, 2007 | I returned late last night from attending four days of Annual Conference in Peoria. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - June 17, 2007 | ...numbers—in the Bible—are not so much lucky or unlucky—as they are meaningful. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 1, 2007 | ...the cat was sitting in the yard, and I spoke to her. I told her to be a good cat. Did I really want her to be a good cat? |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 8, 2007 | I’ve been enjoying some reading this summer. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 22, 2007 |
The fresh night air calls to mind an anecdote I read recently in a biography of John Adams, the second president of the United States. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - July 29. 2007 | It is a bit melancholy for me these days as two of my daughters are getting ready to move out of state. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - August 5, 2007 | We have set up a tent and plan to gather outside in order to experience worship, God, and each other in a different dimension. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - August 12, 2007 | The youth mission trip is accomplished, Vacation Bible School is over, the corn is picked, and the softball team has played its last game of 2007. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - August 19, 2007 | Last Sunday I lost my pants. I went to put my suit on, and the pants were missing. It was my best suit, the one Jie bought me last year in China. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - September 2, 2007 | This is a transition time. And no transition quickens the human spirit quite like fall. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - September 9, 2007 |
Each morning is a prelude to new challenges, new mercies from God, new opportunities, and new discoveries. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - September 30, 2007 | The pastoral calling is more an assignment to the back stage than the center stage. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 14, 2007 | So may God have mercy on all the bazaar workers, on the mission projects blessed by their efforts, on women who bake pies in the middle of the night, and on old men in search of a gentle pleasure or two. --Mike |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 21, 2007 | In the stillness of last night, a little before midnight, we heard a train off in the distance. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - October 28, 2007 | Halloween is in the air. It will be Scarlette’s first American Halloween. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 4, 2007 | Last night was the most welcomed night of the year—for those of us who have a dysfunctional relationship with our morning alarm clocks. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 11, 2007 | It seems that Illinois and Ohio State are rather rude to each other, when it comes to sports. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 18, 2007 | ...there was water bubbling up from the driveway. I thought at first that it might be a sign from God. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - November 25, 2007 | The four letter word of the day is: c-o-l-d. It is 23 degrees this morning, and it feels like 16, unless you go outside barefoot, which I just did. In that case, some other four letter words might accompany the word “cold” in order to convey the fuller experience. |
| December Pastoral Letter - J. Michael Smith | "A mature Christian has all of the characteristics of a healthy tree" |
| About Religious Displays in Common Spaces | I made a brief appearance on Channel Three News this past week. It turns out that the annual ruckus over Christmas displays has flared up at Parkview—the senior housing unit where we have one of our Grace Years chapters. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January 6, 2008 | In the second story of creation, God plays around. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January 13, 2008 | Then I recollect that her brain is about the size of a walnut—and it dawns on me that I probably have other things to do with my grapefruit size brain than over-interpret my cat. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January 20, 2007 |
I spent Wednesday of this past week in St. Charles, Missouri at the funeral of an old friend, Lorraine Fogle Maxon. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - January 27, 2008 |
Rosemary and I sat on the living room couch and talked. And we could sense that God had also been there, and taken George to a home beyond our imaginings. And we shared our sadness and yearnings surrounding George: Rosemary his wife, me his pastor. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 3, 2008 | We religious people especially need to step out of our self righteousness and say, “It’s time to let God really take over.” |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 10, 2008 | Our real gift to offer is our companionship as authentic disciples: letting the spirit of Christ shine through us—to humbly grace a neighbor in need. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 17, 2008 | And my first sight this morning was the big trees dancing. The bare brown branches of a huge deciduous tree were rollicking in the wind—and a husky pine tree was right beside it—swaying as if to some music imperceptible to human ears. I felt as if I was a child catching a peek at some ancient couple spontaneously reliving a good time from their storehouse of old memories. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - February 24, 2008 | It occurs to me that we all have a rich personal history of transportation. The Bible of course records several forms of transportation. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - March 2, 2008 | Scarlette’s big project these days is working on her English—so she can handle the college entrance exams. In addition to going to school and doing her homework, we have her spending 4 hours a day working on reading, vocabulary, writing, listening, speaking, and grammar. A part of that involves my reading stories to her. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - March 9, 2008 | In the heat of understandable emotions, however, irrationality can become rampant. People are capable of concocting entire stories out of half-facts. It’s not all that hard to extrapolate accusations out of emotions—or fabricate facts to fit feelings. Alternative realities are easily manufactured out of the materials of anger, anxiety, and grief. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - March 16, 2008 | Today is the beginning of Holy Week, and my mind plays with the notion of purity. Purity: not mixed with any outside materials, without extra or unnecessary substance, free of contamination, wholesome and untainted by immorality. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - Easter Day 2008 | My body and soul are still touched with the solemn joy of last night’s Easter Vigil worship. A small but hearty band of believers gathered around a campfire outside our church and lit the Christ candle. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - March 30, 2008 | As we age, our lives are measured by the quality of our memories. And no matter what our age, the vibrancy of our hopes is more relevant than anything we can count. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 6, 2008 | Relationships that we have tended through the hard times are more likely to bless us than a ones we have only indulged while on Easy Street. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 13, 2008 | Today is the fourth Sunday of the Easter season. But it seems that Easter was pre-mature this year. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 20, 2008 | Of course, I don’t really have anything as exciting as a vibrating bed. It was just an earthquake—about a hundred miles south of here. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - April 27, 2008 | Normal people employ a mix of intuition (coming up with immediate conclusions) and linear thinking (arriving at a conclusion on foot, after traveling approved paths.) People who are only intuitive are crazy. And people who are only linear will drive you crazy—with boredom. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 4, 2008 |
And if Jie was anywhere within earshot, that was the song that got sung: “Buy the beautiful lady a….” In fact, she did buy several items. Unfortunately she also bought two books: Cats are Smarter than Men and 100 Things to do During a Boring Sermon. Plus someone talked her into buying a gigantic rabbit costume—or sleeping bag. And I am hoping that this is not one of the 100 things to do during a boring sermon. If she brings it to church today, I’ll lose all control. |
| Sunday Morning from the Pastor - May 11, 2008 |
It is a weird weekend—combining a sentimental mood of Mother’s Day with evocative stories about the searing fires of Pentecost. We find ourselves jolted into a Pentecost hope for our church while simultaneously honoring the spirit of motherhood: that submission of the self to the necessities of the needy. And it is apt that this was the weekend for the memorial service for my friend, Audrey Hiles. |
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