Kontakion

At the moment, monetarily speaking, my family is poor. Not so poor that we don’t have anything to eat but poor enough to see that we can barely put food on the table and cover our bills. This is not to say that we aren’t blessed. I was making dinner a few nights ago and I was struck about how good my family eats even when we have no money. This is not a rant on how privileged we in “first world” countries are. I had time to contemplate how a person can take a few simple ingredients and create a filling and flavorful meal. All I had was potatoes, chicken broth, milk, hard boiled eggs, onions, celery, pepper, salt, butter, and bacon. These food items are in-expensive in and of themselves, but when lovingly and properly prepared create a meal that fills, warms, and nourishes. Potato soup is an old family favorite, Katie’s family never had it, or if they did it was from a can. I was able to begin making this soup 3 hours before we ate, Olivia was taking a nap, and I ...

The gentle hum of the electric heater fills the air, while the silly songs of Sesame Street play in the back ground. Nestled in the pit of an oversized light brown arm chair, with an ottoman put right up against it so its more like a day bed than an arm chair, I sit and breath. On the small round table next to me is a glass lamp with books stacked around it. With barely any room on it my Japanese cast iron tea pot sits, steeping with Russian Spice Tea, the perfect thing for a chilly morning. I pour some cream into my Philadelphia Zoo cup, a huge cup that I can wrap both my hands around to warm them. I then pour the tea, getting an excellent mix of cream and tea in the perfect glass. After this I just sit and breathe. My daughter climbs up the ottoman and sits on my leg, as she’s nestles down, we pull a pillow up over us and snuggle. We both turn our attention to Sesame Street . The minutes tick away and we are warm and cozy, the whole time I can feel the love...

I have always been irked by questions about a salvation experience. Most of the time when I am asked that question the individual is looking for a specific answer. A date and time, that Christ reached into my life and saved me. I have never had this experience in a classic way. There have been many times over the years that I have felt God reach into my life and intervene in a special way, often times these ways happen and I don’t understand what is happening at that time. For me it is very rare that I can look back and see an instant that I believe was a saving experience, but it has been on my heart the last several weeks to share one particular event. This is one event that caused me to return to Methodism, and slowly to reclaim orthodox language for my own. We had been in Turkey for twelve or thirteen days already, it was our second to final day in Istanbul , a Sunday to be precise. My roommate and I had decided to sleep in and skip worship that day because we...

Yesterday I got to preach at a small local church. The situation was interesting, I recived a phone call on Thursday asking me to preach, the minister had to be at another church that day. So I was able to switch things around and go, needless to say I had to come up with a sermon on the fly. What I decided to do is preach a sermon that I had preached before. This is the first time I have done that and surprisingly it was good. I felt that the sermon was just right for this congregation, as I looked over the congregation I saw many affirmations of the message which is always rare. An interesting thing about this particular congregation is that my mother had been the minister there before the current minister. So when I looked out on the congregation I saw many faces that I recognized, I rarely attended there because I attended my fathers church, but I also saw many new faces out in the congregation. I have to admit that I was a little distraught during the day tho...

The circular pattern of life really is amazing. As an individual I always think that I know the truth about it and I live comfortable within the knowledge that I am living each moment to the fullest. However this past week blatantly pointed out my personal failure in that regard. This past week I experienced the death of a very good friend, his name was Solomon. He was an adopted grandfather to my daughter, he helped or I should say that he did heat our home last year when we couldn’t afford to. Solomon alone contributed hundreds of dollars to my daughter’s college fund. On Thursday of last week he had a massive heart attack, and died shortly there after. Then on Friday, my family and I went to the wedding of old friends. Their new life together is exciting and thrilling. Their happiness overflowed and all of us spent the night dancing, loving, and laughing. My daughter was the flower girl, I was an usher, and my wife played a waltz for the bride and her grandf...