Classic City Rev

(The following is an adaptation of my Ash Wednesday sermon delivered at Tuckston United Methodist Church on February 17, 2021) The season of Lent is a season of preparation. On Ash Wednesday we begin a season of forty days before Easter, not counting Sundays in which the church observes a time of penance and reflection.   Worship takes on a more somber tone as we journey with Christ towards the cross.   Often times Christians who are observing Lent will do so by giving up something which gives them pleasure as a sign of devotion.   Others during the season of Lent will try to incorporate a new habit of discipline and devotion.   In many ways it seems redundant to say that we are beginning Lent.   After all Lent is the season of the church year when it would seem that our motto is “less is more.”   Since about this time last year we have been in what would seem to be a perpetual state of Lent.   Let’s call it Pandemic Lent   While I don’t know that worship has been more somber it cer

In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, one cannot help but feel that justice has been served when the wrongly convicted and brutalized Andy Dufresne escapes from Shawshank Prison.   Upon discovering the escaped Dufresne, the corrupt Warden, Mr. Norton, can find no reason for Dufresne’s absence.   In his frustration he declares to the prison guards and to the inmate Red, “You know what this is? This is  a conspiracy, one big @#$% conspiracy and everybody’s in on it.” “This is a conspiracy.”   We hear those words a lot lately. We’ve heard those words uttered in regards to November’s election.   We’ve heard those words uttered in regards to the spread of COVID-19.   We’ve heard those words uttered concerning the COVID-19 vaccine.   We hear conspiracies concerning all kinds of things. Conspiracies are nothing new. However, with the advent of the internet and social media there are now more venues available for the advancement of co