Forward Day By Day – April 1, 2020

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

None of us are sure of how old we are—seven or eight years old, maybe. We sleep against the walls of other peoples’ homes. Sometimes they see us in the mornings, and we get a little bit of breakfast, but they don’t ever talk to us. Today Jesus arrives ….(View...

Forward Day By Day – March 31, 2020

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Today, Jesus calls us salt—a high compliment. Jesus reinforces this by asking us to be salty in our relationships, indicating that saltiness is in tandem with peacefulness. Salty, faithful Christians can change the world. Salty people season the families, communities,...

Forward Day By Day – March 30, 2020

Monday, March 30, 2020

While on one of his preaching and teaching walks, Jesus overhears the disciples arguing about the greatest among them, and he lets them know how he feels about this conversation. Maybe they are trying to understand Jesus’ explanation of the kingdom. The disciples...

Forward Day By Day – March 29, 2020

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Years ago, I was rector for a large parish in Mozambique. This particular story takes place after the busyness of Holy Week services, during a long, joyful Easter morning service with dancing, singing, praying, preaching, and readings—and more dancing and...

Forward Day By Day – March 28, 2020

Saturday, March 28, 2020

This one verse from Mark’s ninth chapter is a microcosm of the Biblical witness to the human condition and our dependence on God’s mercy. Understanding the Bible’s witness to God in Christ allows us to reclaim the Bible’s immediacy and integrity—for our world and...

Forward Day By Day – March 27, 2020

Friday, March 27, 2020

Appointed bishop to the Philippines in 1902 and to Western New York in 1918, Charles Henry Brent listened and lived out the love of God’s own beloved. In the colonial outposts in Southeast Asia, he established thriving Christian communities. He campaigned against the...

Forward Day By Day – March 26, 2020

Thursday, March 26, 2020

From The Archives: July 20, 1969Michelangelo’s greatest masterpiece, some would say, is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Like Nicodemus, he came to his work with mixed motives, but Michelangelo’s motives changed, and he stayed with his….(View this reading and...

Forward Day By Day – March 25, 2020

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Today is a day for names. In Isaiah, the promised Messiah’s name is to be Emmanuel, God with us, embodying the divine promise of protection to the children of Israel. Emmanuel—a redeeming presence in the midst of disaster. In Luke, Gabriel brings a mess….(View...

Forward Day By Day – March 24, 2020

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

In 1980, Roman Catholic Archbishop Óscar Romero of San Salvador was assassinated while celebrating Mass. Romero lived a public ministry distinguished by speaking out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, and torture. While the Salvadoran...

Forward Day By Day – March 23, 2020

Monday, March 23, 2020

An unaccompanied woman with a demon-possessed daughter initiating a conversation with a strange man will prompt some controversial responses. Even Jesus is prickly. Then Jesus blows God’s love and healing power wide open, negating ethnic, political, and social...

Forward Day By Day – March 22, 2020

Sunday, March 22, 2020

When Jesus heals the blind man who hasn’t asked to be healed, it is Jesus himself who interprets this healing with dialogue and commentary. He explains the need to do the works of him who sent me…as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world....

Forward Day By Day – March 21, 2020

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Thomas Ken was born in 1637 in Berkhampsted, Hertfordshire, England—the same village where my grandmother grew up. Ken was an Anglican bishop, royal chaplain to King Charles II of England, and one of seven bishops who opposed James II’s Declaration of Indulgence....

Forward Day By Day – March 20, 2020

Friday, March 20, 2020

Earlier on this day, Jesus and his disciples are on one side of the sea of Galilee with a crowd of five thousand people. What Jesus blesses, breaks, and gives to meet the crowd’s need is a miraculous abundance of more than enough. The disciples don’t ha….(View...

Forward Day By Day – March 19, 2020

Thursday, March 19, 2020

From The Archives: June 6, 1944What we call infinity in time and space is beyond our comprehension. Time is no more infinite in the dawn of the geologic past or in the millennium of the farthest prophetic future than it is now while you put into it what thoughts and...