David Lower

A few years ago, while serving as a hospital chaplain, I received a call to a dying man’s bedside. Upon entering the room where a beautiful old man was breathing his last breaths, his son introduced himself to me: “Hi. I’m the oldest son, John.”

We all see weeds, but we shouldn't make it our business to separate them.

Does the divine expression, the word, really work? Does it make a difference in our lives and in the world? My yearning for the difference-making word drew me to James Crockett’s work in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Jesus' parable presents not differences between people but different kinds of terrain within each of us.