I’m not sure I need to say much more. The teenage son tells his dad that he’ll be singing a solo at the Christmas concert. The woman tells her friend at church that she’ll be alone in the waiting room while her husband is in surgery. “I’ve just been fired. I’m heading home and don’t know what I’ll do,” the man tells his buddy from the small group Bible study.

Is there any question but that “I’ll be there” beats “I’ll see what I can do”?

Whether they are the explicit promises we make at baptisms, weddings, ordinations, commissionings and new member receptions, or the implicit promises that bind us together as friends and fellow travelers on the journey of faith, promises are the substance of the ties that bind us together. Continue reading →

Dale is a very good friend. A recently retired professor, he recently wrote a very good blog post, “What Good Health is For,” reflecting on what is important in the next chapter of his life. There’s one line in the post that struck me, though. In passing, Dale mentions bucket lists, a term made famous a few years ago in the Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman movie of that name. Spoiler Alert! This clip captures the message of the movie very well. Movieclips.com calls the scene “He Saved My Life,” from one of the lines the Nicholson character delivers. So, in his post, my friend Dale tells us he has nothing against bucket lists, and there is no reason in the post for him to have anything against bucket lists. But I do have something against bucket lists.

A bucket list is a list of things to do before we kick the bucket. I worry when people actually get serious about a bucket list – or a “Thirty before Thirty” list (thirty things to do before you reach age 30) or the like. Continue reading →

There was a time when a good Presbyterian would look askance at the mention of All Saints Day, thinking it Popish nonsense at best and a strange and dangerous idolatry at worst. I like the day. To be sure, we in the Reformed Tradition understand it differently than our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters understand the day, but rather than dangerous, I find that it can be day to reflect and give thanks.

November 1 has been marked All Saints Day since 835. That’s a long time. Originally it was something like Presidents Day or the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  Canonized Saints were given their own feast days, but as the number of duly recognized saints and martyrs grew, it was clear that not all saints could be given their own day. And surely there were exemplary Christians who had not been officially recognized as such and who deserved the church’s acknowledgement. And so All Saints Day. Continue reading →

This one could get me into trouble. LPC people are a forgiving lot. I could write an impassioned defense of five-point Calvinism or amillennial eschatology – both of which I would be happy to defend passionately – and I know those among you who hold to a different perspective would respect my passion while not agreeing with my position. But this one, well, I’m probably in trouble.

I don’t like Halloween. I’m an unapologetic Halloween Scrooge. Bah! Humbug! Continue reading →

I must say that I was taken aback by the headline. The morning after the Congress had approved the measures to fund the government and raise the debt limit for a few more months, the President offered some comments widely quoted in this and other stories, “Obama says Americans ‘completely fed up’ with Washington.”

Of course, on the one hand I am in full agreement with the President. It’s not the city and its museums and monuments with which we are fed up, it is the petty and partisan politics that mark our time. And, yes, it is the pettiness of barricading monuments and the partisanship that drives our leaders into battles they had no chance of winning. Continue reading →