“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart.” So goes the children’s tune I first learned in a Sunday School class more than thirty years ago. “It’s down in my heart to stay,” the familiar refrain ends. But joy, leaking out of these fractured human containers, has a way of escaping. The car breaks down. The boss needs you to work the entire weekend. The school calls about your misbehaving child. Bills clog the mailbox. It’s akin to having an emotional vacuum cleaner hooked up to your …

A man went to his rabbi and complained, “There are ten of us living in one room. Life is unbearable! What can I do?” The rabbi answered, “Go home and take your goat into the room with you.”  The man was incredulous. But the rabbi was insistent. “Do as I say. Come back in a week.” A week later the man returned looking even more distraught than before. “Rabbi, please, we cannot stand it. The goat is filthy.” The rabbi then told him, “Go home and let the goat out. …

When my young son took his first ride in an airplane last year, it didn’t take him long to shake off any fear he may have brought down the tarmac with him. He absolutely loved it. His favorite part was when the plane would bank steeply upon descent. “It’s fun when the universe is sideways,” he said as the plane tilted dangerously to one side. I disagreed in more ways than one. The universe is sideways, it seems, but it is not very enjoyable. …

Most of us have friends who pass on books to us to read.  While they were reading those books, we came to mind. They thought we were persons who could get something out of the books, as well.
Recently one of my friends who is a giant in the community for social justice and living out his faith with courage handed me a book about a Presbyterian clergyman from the 19th century who c0-championed the causes of the freedom of the press and of ending American slavery.  My friend and I are …

My friend Susie is a nurse, and a very good one. Professional, skilled, and tough. If it can take place within the constricted space of a hospital room, she’s probably seen it. Not much rattles her. Like many in the medical profession, she has acquired the emotional defense mechanisms necessary to continue the care of the sick. But Susie isn’t as hard as flint. Beneath all of her medicinal bravado there’s a soft side. She is deeply moved by the sufferings of the ill. She has wept tears with the …

I seem to have more epiphanies in coffee shops than in church sanctuaries. I don’t know why this is. Maybe it is the combination of early morning air, a clear head, and the aroma of boiling java. It may also be because I rarely have time to reflect while in church. I’m always leading a prayer, or looking at my sermon notes, or trying to remember the announcements or someone’s name. In the coffee shop I’m free of these things.
Just a few days ago I was in a local coffee …

The Rev. Chris Carpenter, embattled former Roman Catholic priest at Christ the King Catholic Church in Mesa  who was excommunicated by Bishop Thomas Olmsted in April 2009, is well on his way to be consecrated a bishop of the Reformed Catholic Church.  The Roman Catholic Church regards the Reformed Catholic Church as renegade and “separated brethren” who are schismatically dividing the body of Christ.
Carpenter, who was once known as “Father Flick” when he also reviewed films for The Catholic Sun newspaper for the diocese, abruptly resigned his pastorate in Mesa in January 2006 and moved …