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Talk for SnowFlower Sangha

on September 27, 2016

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It's an inside job - Matthew 5:21-37

February 16, 2020 I came across a Billy Collins poem recently. It’s entitled, “Another reason why I don’t keep a gun in the house:” The neighbors' dog will not stop barking. He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark that he barks every time they leave the house. They must switch him on on their way out. The neighbors' dog will not stop barking. I close all the windows in the house and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast but I can still hear him muffled under the music, barking, barking, barking, and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra, his head raised confidently as if Beethoven had included a part for barking dog. When the record finally ends he is still barking, sitting there in the oboe section barking, his eyes fixed on the conductor who is entreating him with his baton while the other musicians listen in respectful silence to the famous barking dog solo, that endless coda that first established Beeth

Seeing the glory of God - John 9:1-41

March 22, 2020 There is an African folktale that tells of a farmer who owned 12 dairy cows. He loved his cows. Every morning he praised them for their beauty. Every morning he praised them for all the milk they gave. One morning, however, he noticed that they gave less milk than usual. It was the same the next morning and the morning after that. It was that way for a whole week. So, he decided to stay up at night to see what was happening with his cows. About midnight, he happened to look up at the stars. He saw one star that was getting larger and larger. Its light got stronger as it got closer and closer to earth. It landed in his cow pasture and stopped a few feet in front of him. It was a great ball of light and inside the light there was a luminous woman. As soon as her toes touched the ground, the light disappeared, and she stood there like an ordinary woman. The farmer said to her, “Are you the one who has been stealing milk from my cows?” “Yes,” she s

A greater righteousness - Matthew 5:13-20

February 9, 2020 I was born in Des Moines, Iowa. I was baptized at Windsor Heights Lutheran Church by the pastor who would eventually become my first bishop after my ordination. We spent a few years on my grandparent’s farm, but then moved to Ames, where I was confirmed at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church. After I graduated from Ames High, I attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, majoring in philosophy. I decided I wanted to go to seminary. Two things influenced my choice of seminaries: first, attending a Lutheran seminary held little attraction for me. I believed that the theological viewpoint would be too narrow for me. Second, if I was going to be a Lutheran pastor, I knew that I was likely to end up in the upper Midwest. So, if I wanted to sow my wild oats, I needed to do it right away. So, I decided to go as far away from Iowa as I could get – I went to the School of Theology at Claremont, in southern California. STC, as it was known

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Talk for SnowFlower Sangha

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