“Palms to Shadows” Rev. Dr. David A. Kaden >>Let us descend with you, O Lord, from waving palms to soulless shadows, even as Easter begins to dawn. Amen.<< Today’s service on the liturgical calendar is like oil and water – an odd mix of celebration and shadow – moving from waving palms to shrouded cross, […]
Read more“ cantus firmus : A Fixed Prayer for All Occasions, Part 5” Rev. Dr. David A. Kaden >>Open us, O God, to learn, to wonder, and then to be transformed so the cosmos looks different. Amen.<< Stephen Hawking began his book A Brief History of Time with a story about Bertrand Russell, who once gave […]
Read more“ cantus firmus : A Fixed Prayer for All Occasions, Part 4” Rev. Dr. David A. Kaden >>O God, lead us not into….deliver us from….Help us. Amen.<< Four years before his untimely death, Christopher Hitchens wrote a series of humorous essays for Vanity Fair magazine, titled “On the Limits of Self-Improvement.”[1] In those essays, he […]
Read more “ cantus firmus : A Fixed Prayer for All Occasions, Part 3” Rev. Dr. David A. Kaden >>Open our eyes that we might see wondrous things in your Word, Amen.<< “‘When I pray,’” said Pope Francis in a recent interview, ‘“sometimes I fall asleep.’”[1] He went on to liken prayer to resting gently in the […]
Read more “cantus firmus : A Fixed Prayer for All Occasions, Part 2” Rev. Dr. David A. Kaden >>Let thy kingdom come, and let it come today through our hands, our feet, our prayers. Amen.<< In April of 1989 I was at a Billy Graham crusade in the Syracuse Carrier Dome with my church youth group. The […]
Read more “cantus firmus: A Fixed Prayer for All Occasions, Part 1” Rev. Dr. David A. Kaden >>Open our eyes that we might see wondrous things in your word, Amen.<< In his short story Three Hermits, published in 1886, Leo Tolstoy tells the tale of a Bishop sailing toward the Solovetsky Monastery.[1] On the ship he heard […]
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“A Transfiguration and a Tesla in Space” Rev. Dr. David A. Kaden >>Put a hand on our shoulder and point us in the right direction. Put our hand on someone’s shoulder and let it matter. Amen.<< A red Tesla roadster was blasted into outer space on Tuesday. Attached to the most powerful rocket ever to […]
Read more “How to Heal Like Jesus in Just One Easy Step” Rev. Dr. David A. Kaden >>Put a hand on our shoulder and point us in the right direction. Put our hand on someone’s shoulder, and let it matter. Amen.<< Kate Bowler’s article in last week’s New York Times was, in my opinion, a truly great […]
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“The Demons and the Doubters, Or, The Gospel According to Breaking Bad” Rev. Dr. David A. Kaden >>Open our eyes that we might see, wondrous things in your word. Amen.<< Ten years ago in January of 2008, the first episode of Breaking Bad made its debut on AMC. Breaking Bad tells the story in five […]
Read more “Cold Shower Therapy and a Whale of a Change” Rev. Dr. David A. Kaden >>Breathe through us. Sit with us. Move among us. And splash us with the cold water of your spirit. Amen.<< If you Google “cold showers,” 10.6 million hits will pop up in .41 seconds. Why one might engage in such a […]
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