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Doing an Oma
Friday, April 27th, 2012We found out last week that my mother has pancreatic cancer. __________________________________________________ The maxim holds: the thing that you love most about someone is also the thing that makes you insanely berserk about that same beloved. For my mother, it’s her determination. My mother is nothing if not determined. Determined to be her own person, [...]
Naturally, Absurd
Sunday, April 15th, 2012So the kidlets and I were in Target this morning, racing to get an errand done between church services. The day was a big day at our congregation, and in my own little world. We’d scheduled a meeting after each service to decide whether the church supported the pursuit of a “congregational renewal” grant. Pastor [...]
And now that we know that although death is real, life is real-er,
Saturday, April 7th, 2012there’s more to do with our lives than preserve them. Rejoice in the freedom and grace of Easter. Anna
Passion Week, Passion Life
Saturday, April 7th, 2012The below appeared in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper today. I’m reposting it here, because it’s a Holy Saturday-ish set of musings. This past week, Christians celebrated Passion Week, a week oddly named, apparently, given that Jesus was on his way to death on Golgatha. The word “passion,” however, comes from the Latin passio, [...]
Good Friday and “The Jews”
Friday, April 6th, 2012Good Friday is a High Holy Day in the Christian tradition, and I would argue is half of a singular event: Cross/Resurrection. The tale is tragic, the music somber, the services haunting. These three days ground my understanding of who God is and what God is up to. They are where I begin and end [...]
Umbrella Men and Palm Branches
Sunday, April 1st, 2012In December, 1967, John Updike was writing “Talk of the Town” for the New Yorker, and he spent most of that “Talk of the Town” column talking about the “Umbrella Man.” He said that his learning about the existence of the Umbrella Man made him speculate that in historical research, there may be a dimension [...]
What is OMG again?
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012People aren’t always so sure what OMG is. It seems to me that it might not be so dumb, then, to bullet out a few broad descriptors. 1. OMG is a blog. I write, and I invite readers to submit questions about theology, religion, Scripture and the intersection of any or all of these with, [...]
Anne Rice Redux
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012Question: It may be semantics, but leaving church and leaving congregational religion may not be the same. Consider–if I woman has been for whatever reasons in abusive marriage(s) and decides that marriage is not a good thing, that is not a declaration that all men are bad, but a declaration that marriage is not the [...]
Christmas Morning, Christmas Mourning
Sunday, December 25th, 2011Today we awoke to a Christmas Day for the picture books. We are in Anchorage, Alaska, and the trees are covered with inches of fresh snow from the night skies. The mountains behind my sister’s house are straining to be seen, but we know that they are lurking behind the clouds. I’m not sure whether [...]
Old Jesus probably would’ve puked
Monday, December 19th, 2011Those are Holden Caulfield’s words, not mine, from J.D. Salinger’s book The Catcher in the Rye. He finds himself at Radio City Music hall for their Christmas festival. I’m excerpting the whole Passage of Interest: I came in when the goddam stage show was on. The Rockettes were kicking their heads off, the way they [...]
