PlainSpeech Messages | Find YOUR way to GRACE.
I recently read a message I’d given in 1984 and felt a mixture of embarrassment and surprise. Embarrassed because it seems inadequate now, and surprised by how much my worldview has changed. Twenty-five years from now, I might read these messages and have a similar reaction. I offer no guarantee that my work or words will endure the eroding effects of time. I can only assure you these thoughts have been helpful to me, and perhaps a few others, today. With that qualification, I offer them to you.
~ Philip
NEW!
Jesus and Social Distancing
**VIEW VIDEO MESSAGE** I was listening to the news on my office radio the other day and a commentator on NPR described “social distancing” as a new development, something we’ve never done before. I don’t know what world that commentator has lived in, but humanity...
Passing the Test
**VIEW VIDEO MESSAGE** When I was a kid, one of the most exciting things that could happen was to have school cancelled. It felt like a present, to wake up and be told by your mom and dad that school was closed for the day. Usually because of snow. All the town’s kids...
A Good Provoking
It is good to be back among friends. Joan gave me a report and said everything went well in my absence. She told me Keith gave a fine sermon, though when I spoke to Keith he said he didn’t feel good about the message he’d brought, which is how I feel after every...
Our Calling As Quakers
Jim McClung and I spent Tuesday afternoon in the archives at Earlham College, digging through old minutes from 1941, the year Fairfield Meeting purchased our brick parsonage from the Mendenhall family for the princely sum of $1,200.00. We also discovered when Frank...
Doing Right When the World is Doing Wrong
After Dad passed away this last summer, my brother David divided up the family pictures and brought them to Thanksgiving dinner to distribute to the siblings. So I’ve been looking through them, stirring my memory, and came across a picture from when Dad coached the...
Impatience Is A Virtue
I was at the Clayton Café this past Wednesday, eating lunch with the Quaker men. There are 8-10 of us there every Wednesday at noon. You’re welcome to join us. Membership is not required. Jim McClung was there, and in a happy mood, reporting that while on his way...
What Makes a Space Sacred
I remember when I was a kid going to school, and the Highlights magazine would arrive, which I loved. Our teacher would give us a half hour at the end of the day to read it, and I would lose myself in it, reading the exploits of Ma and Pa Timbertoes, with their...
Swapping Our Morality
Joan and I went to the farmhouse the day after Christmas for a long weekend. The weather was warm for winter, and rainy, which didn’t deter Joan from walking five miles a day. I stayed home while she walked, just in case the house caught on fire or a water pipe burst....
Christmas 2019
Luke 2:1-20 It is good to gather this Sunday before Christmas. Early Quakers weren’t all that enthusiastic about Christmas day, or any religious holiday for that matter, believing every day was sacred, and a gift from God to be celebrated. I told my parents the same...
Pay Close Attention
Our granddaughter Madeline was visiting us last Saturday. Joan had to go to the grocery store, so I was watching Madeline. Her fifth birthday was this past Friday, so we were talking about that, and were having this wonderful conversation, when she asked me how babies...