“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear...Those who say ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars...The commandment we have from God is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”  (1 John 4:18a, 20a, 21)...

“If, as Scripture says, ‘God is love,’ then human freedom is real. As Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor properly discerned, freedom is a burden, choice is scary. But freedom is the absolutely necessary precondition of love. We are not slaves but children of our Father,...

I subscribe to the Oxford American; it's a more commercial version of a literary journal based at the University of Central Arkansas. Anyway, I enjoy reading stuff by Jamie Quatro, the author of a recent essay in the magazine on the monastery at St. Bernard in...

This week we celebrate both Halloween and All Saints Day.  The darkness of Halloween with its evil spirits gives rise to the bright day devoted to the saints who have gone before us.  My hope is that this is a metaphor for what lies behind and what lies ahead.  Disney...

You have heard the story many times growing up.  It is found in Matthew 9 (although this version does not tell about the roof entrance), Mark 2 and Luke 5.  The paralytic man was carried by men to see Jesus, but they could not get through the crowd of people packed in...

“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.  For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as...

“To do for yourself the best that you have it in you to do - to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worst - is, by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful...

This interview is one part of a series written by our 2020 CBF Summer Ministry Intern, Emmaline Rogers. Linda Serino and I met in the sanctuary on a day when the rain fell so hard the air itself seemed to have become a liquid. She told her story with a matter-of-fact...

This interview is one part of a series written by our 2020 CBF Summer Ministry Intern, Emmaline Rogers. Quarantine has turned many pivotal milestones into drive-by experiences. From graduations to proms to dates to hanging out with friends, most teenagers’ lives came...

This interview is one part of a series written by our 2020 CBF Summer Ministry Intern, Emmaline Rogers. Covid-19 took away Amy Moffatt’s sense of stability. Her children lost their routines, she shut down her business for six weeks, and she lost her ability to plan...

This interview is one part of a series written by our 2020 CBF Summer Ministry Intern, Emmaline Rogers. Tommy Sexton’s wedding was the last official event held within the church before it closed in late March. They were married two days after Shelby County Schools...

This interview is one part of a series written by our 2020 CBF Summer Ministry Intern, Emmaline Rogers. Joe Livesay is still living under a strict quarantine due to his health complications that categorize him as high risk. “I can’t do anything,” he said. “[The virus...

This interview is one part of a series written by our 2020 CBF Summer Ministry Intern, Emmaline Rogers. Stephen and I met every Tuesday to discuss my internship. He sat with his legs crossed, leaning back in his chair, and always held a legal pad on one knee. We met...

In his August 26 column for “Center Your Week,” Stephen Cook wrote about when his children were younger, and in those moments when they first went to bed, how the darkness that descended on their bedrooms just after [he] turned off the lights was an unsettling...

This interview is one part of a series written by our 2020 CBF Summer Ministry Intern, Emmaline Rogers. John Avis lost more than he’d planned to when the pandemic shouldered its way into his life. He was nearing the end of his last semester teaching at the Memphis...

This interview is one part of a series written by our 2020 CBF Summer Ministry Intern, Emmaline Rogers. When I met Catherine Lewis in the front lobby of the church, one of the first things she mentioned to me was the goldfinch she’d seen that morning at the Douglass...

This interview is one part of a series written by our 2020 CBF Summer Ministry Intern, Emmaline Rogers. Mary Smith was at the church for her second funeral this summer when she walked past my door, paused, and said hello. She told me that she’d been meaning to send me...

This interview is one part of a series written by our 2020 CBF Summer Ministry Intern, Emmaline Rogers. I spoke with Sandra several weeks after interviewing her husband; she’d come up to me at one of the outdoor worship services and said she’d be willing to sit and...

There are many verses in the New Testament from Jesus about money.  His message was consistent – help the poor, don’t store up riches for yourself, and never put money before God. More recent was John Wesley’s paraphrase, “Make all you can, save all you can, and give...

Recreation According to the dictionary, some of the purposes of a mask are to conceal/hide, misdirect, and protect. Children start young when they plan their Halloween costume to portray themselves as a Disney character or a frightening figure disguised to startle or...

We all have performed a smell test at least once in our lives. We have smelled an item of food such as milk to see if it’s spoiled. We have smelled a baby’s bottom in order to discern if the child has had a bowel movement. We have even smelled a piece of clothing that...

My dad loves to tell the story about a time when I was perhaps 4 years old and I wandered into the den on a Friday night while he was watching a boxing match. He said that I stood there for several minutes observing the boxers and then turned to him and asked, “Daddy,...

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time You understand now why you came this way 'Cause the truth you might be runnin' from is so small But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a coming day . . . Think about how many times I have fallen Spirits are...

Adam Hamilton’s book Unafraid was published in 2018, two years before the COVID-19 pandemic.  Its subtitle,” Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times,” captures a message that resonates with this summer of discontent.  Hamilton, pastor of the largest Methodist...

Prompted by recent racial demonstrations, Juneteenth, and a discussion led by Daniel Johnson, I have been thinking of my own race relations journey through the years. Early Years From my childhood through my first two years at a denominational college, the only black...

As I reflect on the past weeks a few insights come to mind.  It was March 24, 2020, that Jim Strickland, Memphis mayor, declared a “shelter in place” policy for Memphis.  At that time I think I was like most people.  What will this mean?  How long will it last?  I had...

On May 25 in Minneapolis, George Floyd, a black man, died because a white police officer’s restraining technique cut off his air supply.  For over eight minutes, the police officer’s knee pressed directly onto the back of Floyd’s neck while Floyd lay handcuffed on his...

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lists a series of beatitudes: “Blessed are...for....”  The second beatitude reads, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).  The word rendered as “comforted” comes from the same root word that serves as...

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:10 As many people are these days, I am in a book club.  Of course, these days we find ourselves meeting in Zoom sessions and waiting until we determine that we can once again meet in person!  My book club...

“I have my books and my poetry to protect me I am shielded in my armor hiding in my room, safe within my womb I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock; I am an island.” from “I am a Rock,” Paul Simon  It’s been a strange Spring; a gross understatement, I...