Month: March 2015

Seeing and Walking in the Woods

March 27, 2015.Reading time 15 minutes.

John 12:20-36     John’s Gospel belongs in a Sesame Street song. One of these Gospels is not like the others One of these Gospels just doesn’t belong Can you guess which Gospel is not like the others Before I finish my song  Come on, Grover; they’re ALL circles. But Grover would be right about John […]

Read More

Light Lifting Us Up in the Woods

March 18, 2015.Reading time 13 minutes.

John 3:14-21   In the musical Into the Woods, fairytale characters journey into the wilderness; as Stephen Sondheim says: Ah, the woods. The all-purpose symbol of the unconscious, the womb, the past, the dark place where we face our trials and emerge wiser or destroyed. The woods are a metaphor that we have been exploring since […]

Read More

Buildings and Bodies in the Woods

March 12, 2015.Reading time 12 minutes.

John 2:13-22 I’m still thinking about the musical Into the Woods and just how much it resonates with Lent—a time when Christians are supposed to look deeply at themselves, venture into the wilderness, and then emerge as changed people. The fairytale characters of Into the Woods all have issues to deal with. Said issues can […]

Read More

Into the Woods…and Not Turning Back

March 12, 2015.Reading time 13 minutes.

Mark 8:31-38  Into the Woods is a musical by Stephen Sondheim. If you’re not familiar with it, read a brief synopsis here. The fairy tale characters of Into the Woods are changed by their experience in the woods. Their perspectives change; their lives change; some characters don’t even make it out of the woods alive. […]

Read More