lenten journal

lenten journal: social distancing

Milton Brasher-Cunningham

10 Mar 2020 — 1 min read

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A friend and I used to collect oxymorons: jumbo shrimp, student teacher, El Camino Classic. The current state of affairs has given us another one: social distancing. As I turned it over in my head today, I went to a list of phrases I have been collecting from various sources and put this poem together. For me, it served as a tangible example of what we can create together even as we navigate these days.

social distancing

we must inhabit an oxymoron as our anxiety goes viral, they say a lesson in impermanence

the sacrament of encounter becomes a high wire dance to a small concerto of chaos

as the heartbreak church awaits an arrival of generosity an offering of presence

in our beautiful temporary touch with hearts, not hands toss the peace to one another

let it take wing across the space between our sufferings the geography of being alive

this flavor of fear requires an ability to swallow paradoxes to be alone together

Peace, Milton

faithful failures

It’s getting down to crunch time in the baseball season, which means it doesn’t take much for my sermon to intersect with the Red Sox. Here’s what I said on Sunday. ________________________________ In the fall of 2004, I was the Associate Pastor of the First Congregational Church of

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consider the sunflowers

Last week’s lectionary passage is one of my favorites. Here’s what I had to say on Sunday. __________________________ Right after Ginger and I got back from our trip to Durham last month, we noticed a plant that had sprung up along our back fence line. It was not there

asking for a friend

I think this is the first time that thinking about prayer took me to both Robert Frost and ice hockey. Here’s my sermon for this week. ____________________________ My twelfth grade English teacher Ms. Morse is responsible, in part, for my love of poetry—particularly the poems of Robert Frost. When

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faithful failures

Coming soon

consider the sunflowers

asking for a friend