The Lament: Praying the Psalms

Heather Dubrow opens her book, Genre, with a spectacular illustration. She writes: “Assume that the following paragraph opens a novel entitled, Murder at Marplethorpe”: “The clock on the mantelpiece said ten thirty, but someone had suggested recently that the clock was wrong. As the figure of the dead woman lay on the bed in the front room, a no less silent figure glided rapidly from the house. The only sounds to be heard were the ticking of that clock and the loud wailing of an infant.”  So, what type of book are we reading? I’m already looking for clues as to who killed the woman because we are obviously in the midst of murder mystery. But what happens if we read the same paragraph with a different title, something like, The Personal History of David Maplethorpe. Suddenly, everything changes. The clock is no longer a clue as to when a

The Lament: Psalm 13

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is deeply disturbing. I love Ukraine. I love its people and its culture. In fact, my two-weeks in Ukraine changed my life. And now to watch Ukrainian cities being destroyed, its people butchered and its land turned into a wasteland is unbearable. In fact, it is pure evil. So, here’s the question: what can we do about it? When we lived in Miami, we didn’t live in the nicest of apartment buildings.  In fact, it was necessary, when you took out the trash, to throw rocks at the dumpster before you got too close so that whatever critters were inside could bolt before you opened the lid. And call me crazy, but I could live happily ever after without having another dumpster rat snarl or hiss at me. Now, that thought alone was pretty terrifying, but I never really considered what else might be out

Cry of the Heart

This sermon is based on Psalm 42:1-5. SERIES OVERVIEW: Wisdom teaches us that we are composed of three parts: intellect, emotion and will. But we are not so happy about that. We like to think that thinking is king and that acting is behaving in accordance with something we think.  Worse, we feel that emotions are so. . . emotional.   And while we like the good emotions (love, joy, hope, etc.), we don’t know what to do with the bad ones (anger, guilt, fear, etc.), except to say they are bad and we should not have them.  But what if our emotions (both the good and the bad) are a window into our own souls? And what if our emotions are often the vehicle God chooses to use so that we can truly find him? And what if following Jesus well has a lot to do with us following our

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