PENTECOST AND FIRE AWARENESS One of humankind’s first and greatest achievements was mastering fire, learning to control and harness potentially destructive power for human good. Almost all the technological innovations…

UP, UP, AND AWAY On Sunday, 12 May, we observe the feast of the Ascension that celebrates the end of Jesus’ resurrection appearances and his ascending to heaven. Ascension itself…

SOMETHING THERE IS THAT DOESN'T LOVE A WALL I’ve used the mild days this week to pick up winter’s debris around our yard and to mend some of the damage…

LOVE AND THE HARROWING OF HELL If you notice our worship bulletin’s headings thus far in April, they all describe the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th Sunday of Easter. Easter is…

DOES EAST LONGMEADOW NEED A HOG REEVE? This week I couldn’t resist reading a story in the Boston Globe that had the headline - “Pork and politics: Towns offer sweet…

THE IMPORTANCE OF ATTEMPTING SMALL THINGS FOR GOD On January 5, Alaska Airline’s flight 1282 was forced to make an emergency landing after a panel blew off the plane, endangering…

EASTER AND THE LILY CRUCIFIX They are everywhere. In the supermarket. In big box stores. In churches and the most modest flower shop. I can usually smell them before I…

THE ROCK-SOLID TRUTH OF HOLY WEEK Since their discovery by a mining prospector in the early 1900s, visitors to Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California, have been fascinated by what…

GOLDFINCH FEATHERS AND EASTER JOY I read in the news that a bird watcher named Peter Kaestner has recently achieved the nearly impossible task of having identified 10,000 of the…

SNAKES ON A POLE Southeast of the ancient Greek city of Corinth is a large archeological site at Epidaurus: The great Temple of Asclepius, the god of healing. As early…