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When I was in college, I had the fortune to study with Dr. Stirling, a living legend in the English Department. He was the kind of teacher who drew you in so completely that you were shocked when the class was over because it felt like you’d only started a moment earlier. I remember one […]
As a child, my brother and I were obsessed with the original trilogy of the Star Wars movies. We would watch them over and over again. We would play with the action figures, we’d read the books, we’d dress up like the characters and act out scenes, every day after school. I remember one time […]
If Jesus’ disciples had known what a horror movie is, they would have thought they were living in one in our New Testament lesson today. It opens the way most horror movies do: it’s clear that this is not a place that the disciples want to be, but they haven’t realized it yet. They think […]
As I was reading Isaiah’s prophetic critique of the ways of the kingdom of Judah this week I thought of…Homer Simpson, the buffoonish father at the center of the longest-running animated TV series in history, The Simpsons. In one episode, Homer (the buffoonish father of the family) discovers that he’s finally made enough money to […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin – June 23, 2019 When we began telling people that my wife Tammy was pregnant with our son Liam, people began asking all kinds of questions, from close friends to total strangers. Some were polite and kind, while some felt a bit intrusive. But my favorite arose from time to time, […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin – June 16, 2019 When I was about five years old, I discovered gold in my backyard. As you might imagine, it was pretty exciting. It started off uneventfully: my brother and I had been busy all afternoon with my Mom’s gardening tools, innocently vandalizing an overgrown area she didn’t care […]
By Rev. J.C. Austin – June 9, 2019 The city of New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the world. I would argue it has the richest and most distinctive culture of any major U.S. city. Known as Creole culture, it arose in New Orleans as a rich stew of nationalities that lived […]