What's Tony Thinking

A God Un-Like Us

March 28, 2021 — Holy Week began today. I haven’t yet made up my mind if, this year, it comes as a gift or a burden — or both? By the mercies of God we once again may live into this Holy Week as a gift; or, in a world already so full of suffering and grief, here’s more. Holy... Read More

The Immigration Achilles Heel

March 26, 2021 — I’ve been off politics for a while. Just enjoying the post-Trump sanity and the Biden low-key-ness. That said . . . I’m concerned about the immigration/ border issues (who isn’t?). There’s the human suffering. The truly terrible plight of the poor and vulnerable from the countries of the Northern Triangle. And just the overwhelming complexity... Read More

Rest

March 25, 2021 — If you made it all the way to the end of my March 21 sermon, you may have noticed that I concluded with an invitation to rest. Here are the final paragraphs of that sermon. “The last word, and the first, is a grace we can never earn, only receive. Rest in this grace. Rest... Read More

Why You’ll Soon Be Missing the Pandemic

March 22, 2021 — I had my second shot Sunday afternoon at Kaiser’s Northgate Clinic. Linda had her’s the day before. Fourteen more days and we join the growing number of oldsters enjoying new freedom. Of course, the pandemic may come boomeranging back, but for now it looks like it will ease and life will return to something more... Read More

My March 21st Sermon

March 21, 2021 — I preached this morning for a combined service of our daughter Laura’s church, Bethel, and their across the river neighbor, Riverside. Here’s that sermon. Lifted Up John 12: 20 – 33 It is good to be with you, Bethel and Riverside Churches, this morning. These days, Linda and I are with Bethel UCC most every... Read More

A Response to my Blog on the Atlanta Murders

March 18, 2021 — I got the following response to my most recent blog from one of my best readers, my daughter, Laura. With her permission I share it with you. Hey Dad, Just to start off by saying, I’m grateful for you – for your presence in my life, for the wisdom you’ve shared, for your emphasis on... Read More

The Atlanta Shootings: Racism May Not Explain It

March 17, 2021 — A young man, just 21, has been arrested in the shootings and for the murders of eight people at massage parlors in the Atlanta area. Six of victims were Asian. He told authorities that the motivation for his crimes was not racial. It was about addiction, his sexual addiction. His tragically misguided attempt to wipe... Read More

The Joy of Low Expectations

March 17, 2021 — Here’s the view from the top of Chair 2 at Mission Ridge, a ski area just outside of Wenatchee, Washington. I spent the last three days skiing at Mission with my son, Joe, and my grandson, Colin. The second photo shows Colin and Grandpa sitting at a picnic table at 6000′ plus feet on a... Read More

Faith When It’s Hard

March 15, 2021 — Tim Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Church in NYC, was diagnosed recently with pancreatic cancer, a terminal diagnosis. Keller has counseled many as they face death, but now he writes, he feels something like a surgeon who finds that he is now the patient. What of his own faith at such a time? His Atlantic article... Read More

Spring, Glorious Spring

March 13, 2021 — We’re still a week away from the official start of spring, but here in Seattle Mother Nature jumped the gun. We’ve had a beautiful week of spring-like weather, with another one coming our way. Here is a magnolia (I think) singing it’s song. Beyond that, there’s real hope of the pandemic shroud gradually lifting this... Read More

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