What's Tony Thinking

Our “Most Read” Posts of 2022

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December 28, 2022 — Big thanks to all of you readers out there as another year of blogs comes to a conclusion. About 800 of you are subscribers, receiving blogs as they appear in your email box. If you want to become one just hit the “subscribe” button above right and give us your email. You can unsubscribe any... Read More

2022 Book of the Year: Low Anthropology

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December 26, 2022 — Commencement addresses are often exercises in what Dave Zahl calls “high anthropology,” as graduates are told that they are special people of unique promise, “leaders of tomorrow,” and need only follow their passion and dreams to succeed. Steve Jobs’s Stanford commencement address fit this bill perfectly as he urged graduates to, “Have the courage to... Read More

My Christmas Day Sermon

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December 24, 2022 — Go Big, Go Bold December 25, 2022 John 1: 1 – 14 I said in my first sermon that I was sure that our time here would go by quickly. It sure has. We’ve had a great time. Thank you. Thank you so much for this very special opportunity to be a part of your... Read More

Sketching in San Miguel

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December 23, 2022 — San Miguel de Allende is nothing if not picturesque. I’ve been having fun doing some watercolor/ pen and ink sketches. Here are a few. The first is basically the view from the rooftop deck of the apartment where we live in central (El Centro) San Miguel. The largest church (pink on left) is the Parroquia... Read More

From Christian to Ex-Christian America

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December 20, 2022 — When it showed up in my email box I almost didn’t open “How a Great American Victory Altered American Faith”. The subtitle was about the Cold War and its impact on religious affiliation. Who cares about the Cold War, which ended when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed, more than forty years ago?... Read More

Christmas Poetry for the Ironically Inclined

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December 19, 2022 — It’s possible to OD on sweetness and sentimentality just now. So here are a few short Christmas poems I like that are of an ironical nature, palette cleansers so to speak. I poked fun at Christmas letters in my last sermon. Here’s a poem by John M. Morris on the genre . . . The... Read More

My Fourth Sunday of Advent Sermon

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December 18, 2022 — An Imperfect Christmas Matthew 1: 18 – 25 December 18, 2022/ Here is a link to the video version of the service and sermon. At long last, now on this the final Sunday of Advent, we come to something in the appointed lessons that sounds like Christmas. The gospel reading begins with the words, “Now... Read More

Christmas Correctives or The Rest of the Story

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December 16, 2022 — As I, once again, plan multiple Christmas Services — a long time since I’ve done that — I’m experiencing a bit of “Christmas blur.” The stories, the carols, the prayers, the candlelight all begin to run together. Sort of like too many desserts. Really, can there be too many desserts? Of course, the biblical stories... Read More

Notes from Mexico, No. 4

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December 13, 2022 — As of today, December 13, we have two weeks remaining to our sojourn in San Miguel de Allende. Yesterday was a big day, the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The Virgin Mary appeared to St. Juan Diaz in 1531. He authenticated the miracle to the bishop by presenting a cloak full of roses when... Read More

My Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent

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December 11, 2022 — Are You the One? (for a recording of the worship service and sermon, click here) Matthew 11: 2 – 11 Third Sunday of Advent, December 11, 2022 Last week one of you asked me if I were re-using sermons that I had preached in the past? It’s a fair question. Many preachers do reach, as... Read More