Heidi Neumark
My incarcerated nephew, the guest of honor
Our family reunion in Argentina looked like something straight out of one of Jesus’ parables.
Naming the shadows: My visit to Lbeck
The Totentatz window was created soon after the Shoah but with no reference to the city's murdered Jews. Two of them were my grandparents.
Ministry puts ministers at risk
Our call is a close call, one that draws us close to the sharp edges of life. "While we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake."
The poor door: Class separation in the church
People are rightly disgusted by buildings with separate entrances for low-income residents. But churches have side-door people, too.
Resurrection by inches
It’s been seven years, and I cannot access Jesus' word of peace. The tears still sting and slosh over my pail of remorse.
Companion to strangers: Building bonds in sorrow and love
After the funeral, I was ready to help the boy's family find a church home closer to where they lived. Instead, they stayed with us.
Bedbug epiphany: A Three Kings pageant
The frankincense gift needs to be taped back together. So does the stable wall.
Preaching the news: Texts for preaching
In addition to the biblical text, the most important material for me tends to come from our context and from what I discern in the lives, community and world around us.
Marginal stories
The story of the widow of Zarephath and Elijah is bracketed by two other stories that are excluded from the lectionary and are therefore never heard by many people in our congregations. Both of them concern the deviant monarchy under which the widow and her child live.
Sunday, November 11, 2012: Mark 12:38-44
Some years ago I visited a Roman Catholic parish in one of the poorest areas of Mexico City....
Pre-election themes for All Saints
Many churches, including mine, will mark All Saints Day this Sunday. Of course, politics will also be on everyone’s mind. At first it seemed to me that the two have little in common, but then several connections occurred to me.
Lectionary column for All Saints Day: John 11:32-44
To understand what I am going to tell you, you need to know that my parents were scientists and that my mother’s mind had a decidedly unpoetic bent....
Hurricane effect: Worshiping through the storm
Most churches in the New York area closed down as Hurricane Irene approached. My circumstance was a bit different.
Sermon in stone: A baptismal font, centuries old
I went to Lübeck, Germany, this summer to explore my recently discovered Jewish roots....
Family secret: Resurrected memories
When my father boarded a ship to New York in 1938, he brought his trunks of family silver and linens—and his faith....
Altitude adjustment: Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)
In the hospital emergency room, someone accidentally bumps into an aide carrying a bedpan, and urine sloshes onto the floor. After several hours of waiting, my mother is finally admitted. I pay for TV, but she does not have the strength to push the buttons on the remote. She can’t find the red button to call the nurse either. She tells me that last night she was taken down to a dungeon where she lay awake in terror. Now she wonders why someone left a black Scottish terrier in the corner of her room.
Aliens welcome: Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Luke 4:1-13
As I write this, the kitchen table is shaking. If our table is shaking, I worry that the church’s beautiful stained-glass windows, desperately in need of repair, are also shaking. The parsonage is attached to the church and shares the same foundation. Seven feet away all hell is breaking loose. Several blocks of businesses that have served this neighborhood are being knocked down by giant backhoes and inflated real estate prices to make way for towering apartments.
Translating Easter: Spanish is not an elective
In the essay “Jesus Shaves,” from Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris describes a day in a French class that he enrolled in shortly after moving to Paris....
Church of refugees: Into Egypt—and Manhattan
My installation as pastor at a Manhattan congregation began with a festive outdoor procession weaving through public housing projects and then looping around to the parking lot near the pricey apar...
Mule ride
Once Mary said yes to the angel, she signed on for a trip with no way out.