Lottery and Love

Lottery and Love

So, the other day, Fr. Brooks and I were sitting around, relaxing with the dogs, and somehow or another, the conversation turned to winning the lottery. Not just the little scratch off, where you sometimes win enough to buy another ticket or two. No, we were planning on winning the big Powerball, when it was close to a billion dollars.

What would we do with it if one of us won? Well, of course we would take care of our family. I'd get a 4-wheel drive SUV. Brooks would get a good truck to haul rocks for a wall he plans on building. We'd tithe because we're priests. But then we began to diverge.

Awkward Hosea, Loving God

Awkward Hosea, Loving God

Father Steve’s sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (Year C), July 28, 2019.

            So, there are times when a preacher picks up the lectionary to look at the readings and thinks, “Wow!  This will fit in perfectly with what's going on at church today!”  After picking up the lectionary last week, I realized that this was definitely NOT one of those times.  And it's certainly not every day that someone in church utters the word “whoredom,” not once but three times. 

Is "good enough" enough?

Is "good enough" enough?

There is a small town in Arkansas that I've spent some time in called Newport. It's part of the Mississippi delta region, a rural, flat place that has a lot of closed down Sinclair and Esso Service Stations, trailer homesteads, grain silos, cars on blocks and acres and acres of cotton, soy, sorghum, and, of course rice.

Newport is located on the White River, a feeder branch of the Mississippi, and has a population of a little over 7,000 souls. It's been around since 1875 and became the Jackson county seat in 1892. And that is about the most important thing that has happened to the town for 141 years.