My mind is racing this morning, mostly filled with overwhelming gratitude. Here's the thread of it---"It is the LORD's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes" (Psalm 118:23). Sunday was simply wonderful as we gathered for the first time in our newly renovated and practically new sanctuary. It is a beautiful facility that will enhance our worship for many years to come....Over 550 people were there ...  Read More

"We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time."-- T.S. Eliot, Four QuartetsThe last time we worshipped in our sanctuary was Sunday, February 12, 2017. Now, after a long journey of more than three years, we are ready to come back into that sacred space again. It's the same room, of course—yet very, very di...  Read More

This is the title of a song by Question Mark and the Mysterians, a '60's garage band. The little band I was in as a young teenager covered this song, and I was the singer. It's probably better for all of us that my career in rock-n-roll didn't take off, but we did appear on local TV for a week that summer long ago. I still like the song.Jesus wept as He approached Jerusalem, says Luke 19:41. I'm n...  Read More

Here's a synopsis of my sermon last night in Richmond. Sir Christopher Wren was the famous 17th century English architect who rebuilt much of London after the Great fire of 1666. The epitaph on his tomb in St Paul's Cathedral reads: "If you seek his monument, look around you." Not just at that cathedral, but at so many other structures, too.If you had asked me when I was 12 years old what I wanted...  Read More

I am bracing for a busy October, after several months of a much slower pace.We are having in-person worship services on Sunday mornings now and, although the crowds are consistently but slowly rebuilding, the more regular routine that I have followed for decades is back in place.Schedules for a pastor are always subject to change at a moment's notice, but in the weeks ahead I know that I have the ...  Read More

Added to the long list of things that are different during these Covid days is the way we watch NFL football games now. I saw Washington's thrilling season opener last weekend, and then the Las Vegas Raiders/ New Orleans Saints game last night. The players were there, giving it their all—and the sounds of the fans filled the air with enthusiasm, just as always. But every time the cameras pulled ba...  Read More

Just about every week someone will post on Facebook an announcement of their anniversary, complete with pictures of their wedding day last year or several years ago. And very often I am in one or more of those photographs as the officiant. I usually comment with this line: "Ah, yes...I remember it well.” Because I do. And there are my journals to help revive memories of all the details. Sometimes ...  Read More

You seldom see so lovely a string of days as we experienced over Labor Day weekend in Northern Virginia. It was my intention to enjoy each and every minute (before too long the days will be growing shorter and colder), and I certainly did.Friday night Audrey and I joined some of our church kids and their parents for "movie night.” It was held outside in the east parking lot with everyone properly ...  Read More

Today is that day in France when summer officially comes to an end. Long holiday vacations are over. Students head back to school. Parliament regathers for its work. Everything starts up again. A return to the real world of responsibility.In our country, it is Labor Day that signals the change in seasons. It seems like that ought to be today for us as well, but we have an extra week this time. Soo...  Read More

Habits take 21 days, more or less, to form in our lives, some experts say. Bad ones come more easily, because they do not require much effort and they follow our natural inclinations. Over-eating and drinking, lack of exercise, profanity, they come from our "fleshly desires" and do not take a lot of thought.Good habits, however, take discipline and intentionality to establish. Maybe a few false st...  Read More

We have spent a little more than a week in Daytona Beach Shores. It’s our go-to place for vacation each summer, but this year was definitely different. No movies. Hardly any eating out at favorite restaurants. We didn’t even try church on Sunday. We mostly ate home cooking, walked the solitary beach, and read.I finished Erik Larson’s book, The Splendid And The Vile, about Churchill and the Battle ...  Read More

Bill Gates would take a seven-day retreat, twice a year, to pull away from the normal routine. He called it "Think Week," because he would read and plan and consider new ideas. Here's some stream-of-consciousness thinking going through my brain today—SURPRISE: Spiritual interest is actually rising in America during Covid-19. So says Greg Sterling, Dean of Yale Divinity School, "This pandemic is ma...  Read More

"As you get older it's more difficult to have heroes, but just as necessary."-- Ernest HemingwayI have always had heroes—people who are models for me of the kind person I have wanted to be. Some I have observed up close and with whom I have had meaningful conversations. But most of them I have known only through books. Starting from childhood and daily visits to Suffolk's Morgan Memorial Library i...  Read More

I don't know, maybe everybody does this.When I hear a song on the radio, and it is from my youth or young adulthood—I call out loud the year in which it was released. Even if nobody is in the room, like I do the answers on Jeopardy. James Taylor's Fire and Rain—that would be 1970. The same with Elton John's Your Song. Carole King's Tapestry album—1971. I did it the other night with Sinatra's Let M...  Read More

This is the week! After four months of online worship only—nothing in the building—we will be having public worship services starting on Sunday morning, July 26. No one has pressured me and the other pastors to do this, and our folks are of different minds on the subject. Many have long been ready to return—others think we should wait still longer before we do.We said that we would wait until Virg...  Read More

Austria is probably our favorite place to visit in all the world. It is breathtakingly beautiful, of course. But a big part of it is that one of our very best friends lives there--Christina. We met her thirty-five years ago when she came to Florida as an au pair. We have kept up over the years and exchanged several visits along the way. Her family and friends are a part of ours by now.Another reas...  Read More

It's time to regather! After four months of streaming only, we are ready now to come back together on King Street as First Baptist Church of Alexandria. Circle Sunday, July 26, on your calendar and plan to be with us at either 9 or 11 AM.Here are some questions I have received since the announcement was made on Friday---Q. Why wait until the 26th? Let's start now.A. Well, I like your enthusiasm. B...  Read More

Yes, Audrey does do a lot of the clothes shopping for me. She has a greater sense of style and appropriate color combinations and keeps up with the latest fashion trends--down to my bright and multi-colored socks.Last week she brought home a new pair of shoes for me to try. I put one of them on to make sure that it fit. It did. Then I put it back in the box and into the closet. On Saturday I took ...  Read More

Audrey and I were in the car for a long ride recently and among the things we talked about was which one of us might die first. Naturally, because I'm a bit older than her, and a man, the odds are that it will be me."You must promise me one thing", I said. "Use some of that insurance money to buy a nice stone."My wife looked at her ring finger, smiled, and said, "Oh, I will. I will.”I meant a tomb...  Read More

A pandemic, economic collapse, and racial injustice with a face and a name.Do bad things really happen in threes?That's the proverbial wisdom, and it sometimes seems that way, but-- No, they do not. We like to look for patterns in the things that come our way. With "confirmation bias,” we pick-and-choose information that confirms what we already believe and then we overlook everything else. It's j...  Read More

My thoughts are racing with this morning's coffee. I've been scribbling them down to share as they come, in a kind of stream-of-consciousness...A book that has really helped me better understand the racial justice issue is Stony The Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, And The Rise of Jim Crow, by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. I also recently saw the movie, Just Mercy, a true story il...  Read More

Tipping point-n., the critical point in an evolving situation that leads to a new and irreversible development.Events in the Spring of 2020 may well have brought our nation to a "tipping point,” a time when things are forced to change. This often happens for the good of a society--but not always.The Covid-19 pandemic has caused us to re-think the way we work, educate our children, socialize, and w...  Read More

I have never had a tattoo on my body, although every time we go down to Daytona I tell Audrey that I think it's about time. There are parlors everywhere and "it would be discreet.” I'm not really serious, of course, but...What I do have are age spots. Brown, oddly shaped markings on my face and chest. They aren't caused by age, actually, but by too many years of very unwise, unprotected sun-bathin...  Read More

"You must remember this A Kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh. The fundamental things apply As time goes by."  --Herman HulfeldThere has been speculation that the kiss may not survive the Coronavirus pandemic. Not the romantic kiss that comes at the end of a wedding ceremony, or in the final seconds of a Hallmark movie-- but the pecks on each cheek, a common greeting in European countries. ...  Read More