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Posts Tagged: pcusa
September 4, 2020
Picking Out A Frame Scripture, History and the Present Moment by Ken Rummer The canvas before us looks to be from a surrealist artist. In the center, a figure in a beaked plague mask rides a green horse. To one side, bed-sheet banners with the message “No Job, No Rent” hang from apartment windows. To… Read more »
August 7, 2020
The pumpkin and the bee An observation by Ken Rummer The pumpkin is bigger than a softball now, in dark green with a few warty bumps. It’s something of an accident. Last fall, when our porch pumpkin sagged into mushy flatness, I carried it out back on a shovel, and deposited it, without eulogy or ceremony,… Read more »
July 3, 2020
When words collide Bumping through the Lord’s Prayer by Ken Rummer In my pastoring days, I often invited the mourners at the graveside to join in praying the Lord’s Prayer. I suppose it was a vestige of Christendom culture, the assumption that most everyone there would know the prayer by heart, but in our rural… Read more »
June 5, 2020
Listening to the pines Tree wisdom for pandemic life by Ken Rummer From my favorite pew at church — yes, even retired ministers tend to sit in the same place on Sunday — from that special spot I can look up and out through the clear windows around the cross and see the tops… Read more »
May 1, 2020
Feeling steadier now What I learned from walnut and light by Ken Rummer The bench seat feels smooth under my hand. Finally. It’s been a journey. The three walnut boards that form the seat started out rough-sawn, still sporting splinter fuzz and tooth arcs from the sawmill. I brought them through jointing and… Read more »
April 3, 2020
The goldfinch and the virus With a word and a prayer by Ken Rummer Walking the trail yesterday, I caught a flash of yellow in the wild plum stems—a goldfinch, the first I’ve seen this season. After last week’s snow, I took it as a welcome sign of spring. Red-winged black birds perched along… Read more »
March 6, 2020
Poking around in the ashes A reflection for Lent by Ken Rummer Last year’s palm branches are burning down to ashes as I write. Tonight we will receive a smudge of those ashes on our foreheads as we repent and remember and head into the wilderness with Jesus. Growing up, I didn’t have much… Read more »
February 7, 2020
Singing Hallelujah Even when you don’t feel like it by Ken Rummer The hurting and disappointed pieces of my heart have found a ballad they can sing in Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” While I’ve been working on the song in choir practice, the song has been working on me. Out of eighty-some verses he had written,… Read more »
January 3, 2020
Desperate journeys And a word of blessing by Ken Rummer Aunt Betty came down to the depot to see us off. We didn’t have any food with us. It was raining…. By the time we got to Columbus we were all starving, so Dad got off to get us something to eat. He missed the… Read more »
December 6, 2019
Boxes For Memories A Christmas Project by Ken Rummer A box to put memories in. That’s my current project in the wood shop. The vision came from a friend who was sorting through her late husband’s drawer of keepings. She wanted to pass some of them on to family, along with a few items… Read more »