On September 21st, 1987, President Ronald Reagan spoke to the United Nations. In an appeal to our common humanity, he said something that drew mocking humor from commentators, comedians and critics, yet all of them also had to admit that what he said was true. He said, “Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.”

It’s undeniably true. We can see examples in any crisis or calamity of the many ways that human beings of all backgrounds, creeds and station will rally together to help. We see it with natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes – or the tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004. A couple of weeks ago we remembered 9/11, and how the entire nation and much of the world came together, if briefly.

Read More

One of the major skills all students must develop as best they can is reading comprehension. It starts early with book reports, then later on you have to read a novel and write a more interpretive paper on it. We used to call that looking for the “deep hidden meaning” – or DHM – a game of sorts to figure out what the author was trying to get across, or at least what the teacher thought the author was trying to get across.

That art of interpretation can be difficult and more so when applied to life.

Jesus is working his way from the Decapolis back into the heart of Galilee to Capernaum. Now he is teaching the disciples in a direct and private way, and they are just not getting it.

Read More

I went to boarding school with a guy named Andy Sudduth. Andy was a very likable guy, with a curly mop of strawberry blonde hair, a quiet but engaging personality and a big smile to go with it. He grew up in Exeter, New Hampshire where dad was a doctor. They were Episcopalians and lived right next to Christ Church, where his family attended occasionally.

I met him when I went to boarding school in Exeter. He was a day student, and he grew to use my dorm room as his locker room of sorts. He’d drop his back pack or whatever in my room, which was only ¼ mile from his house. And despite the fact that he was hopeless at playing catch with any sort of ball, he was a world class athlete.

Read More