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!
When Virtues Collide
Several weeks ago, the storm that knocked down buildings on Mooresville’s Main Street, toppled a tree in our yard, causing it to fall on, and demolish, our neighbor’s split rail fence. You’ll be shocked to learn the damage wasn’t covered by my homeowner’s insurance....
What COVID-19 Has Taught Me
This is the first pandemic for most of us, having not been alive when the Spanish flu struck in 1918. We’ve had our share of epidemics since then─diphtheria, measles, polio, and AIDS, but nothing on the scale of COVID-19. FYI, epidemics strike specific regions or...
Emmanuel
John 11:1-44 I went to Amish country this week, out to Parke County, with my son Spencer to buy gates for his farm. It was sunny and Madeline was with us, so it was a good day. I enjoy spending time with the Amish. We’re seeing more of them...
Beside Still Waters
It’s interesting the things people do during a quarantine. There is a race known as the Cannonball Run, which consists of seeing how fast one drives across the United States. Last week, a team of drivers in an Audi A8 sedan left New York City and arrived in Redondo...
Easter 2020
What comes after death? I’ve been thinking about that this week, partly because it’s Easter Sunday, or Resurrection Sunday, and partly because this pandemic is causing me to wonder what comes after this virus has departed or been defeated. What comes after...
Palm Sunday 2020
Mark 11:1-10 When a pastor is dependent upon human interaction for their sermon illustrations, social distancing can be alarming. I never realized just how dependent I’d become upon the Clayton Café for inspiration. But I stayed away from others the entire week,...
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...
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...