Theological Reflection

The Seventh Day of Christmas: A King Blinded by Pride

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It is a Naegeli family tradition on New Year’s Eve to pass the hours between dinner and midnight by watching the 1995 A & E version of Pride and Prejudice. It never ceases to delight and vex, and we have our favorite lines to recite from memory as they pop up in the course of the five-hour-fifteen-minute presentation. If we plan it just right, the wedding bells begin to ring right on the stroke of midnight; great fun. The two main characters struggle with communication-choking predispositions:  Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth) is a sulking, prideful man who is fixated on class […]

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The Third Day of Christmas: An Angel Sent to Tell

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The cancer journey involves many notifications, the exchange of news, lab results, or even game-changers mid-way through a course of treatment. Most often, the messenger is the doctor, or in my case one of three doctors representing various disciplines. In the past week, I have had a sit-down with each: the radiology oncologist (last Friday), the surgeon (Tuesday), and the medical oncologist (Friday). Yesterday’s encounter was the summary decision-making meeting. After collating all the data culled from a definitive CT scan and the surgeon’s assessment of it, Dr. Chen brought into yesterday’s meeting a proposal for further treatment: one more

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The First Day of Christmas: A Baby Wrapped in Cloth

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A perfectly lovely day unfolded for the Naegeli family yesterday. We surrounded each other with love, gifts, food, frivolity, and even a little suspense, in the form of Daddy’s Treasure Hunt. When I needed to sleep, I just conked out in my recliner; when I awoke I was amazed by what the others had done in the meantime. Around the tree, a major gift theme for me was fabric, in the form of soft clothing, head scarves, and cute hats. I am set for life in the scarf department, now with several great colors and patterns to choose from. Each

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Christ in My World and Yours: The Gospel of John

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I awoke this morning at 2 o’clock thinking about the decision-making meeting with my surgeon at 11. The feelings were not trepidation, but excitement and a teacher’s love for detail. And then I remembered what day it is—Christmas Eve!—and my chosen spiritual discipline for the week, and the absolute necessity of putting even a medical consultation in the context of Christ’s glorious Incarnation. So today, we turn to the fourth gospel, John’s late-first-century rendering of the person and work of Jesus Christ. John, having believed in Christ now for decades and staking his life upon the claims Jesus made while

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Christ Enters My World: The Gospel of Luke

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Today we come to the most beloved version of the Christmas story, the long narrative found in the gospel of Luke. The orderly account of extraordinary events shouts “Miracle! Miracle!” from the beginning of chapter 1 to the end of chapter 2, a total of 120 verses. The details, the characters, the cast of thousands (angels, shepherds, a crowded Bethlehem) surround the essential, sacred truth: God broke into history, conceiving Jesus in Mary’s womb, birthing him away from home (literally and figuratively) under difficult circumstances, and working the redemption that would save the world from its sin. We catch a

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Christ Enters My World: Christmas According to Matthew

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Preachers have a dual challenge each week, to exegete a scriptural text for preaching and to interpret where their people are in a position to hear it. Because of my current detachment from my church family for wisdom’s sake (avoidance of the colds and flu going around), it seems as though the last thing on my mind these days is Christmas. I have not seen the decorations in the sanctuary, attended a party, or even completed my Christmas shopping. Unlike yours, perhaps, my mental space is occupied at the moment with this decision that will be made on Christmas Eve

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Living in Suspense

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One of the pleasures of a quiet life, and the hours each day spent in the chemo chair, is reading a good recreational book. Right now I’m working on a legal thriller called Havana Requiem by Paul Goldstein. This tightly written novel by the Stanford author unfolds in Grisham style to reveal the rich tapestry of pre- and post-revolution Cuba, and particularly the music associated with it. Some of the “Aha” moments are discoveries of cultural significance (as opposed to “a body in the library,” although one gets that, too). All in all, it has me in suspense. So you

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Freedom in Confinement

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The week’s news has been dominated by the death of Nelson Mandela and the celebrations of his life. His greatness is measured by the impact of his personal transformation on a nation sullied by apartheid. His vocal and powerful political advocacy prior to his incarceration was silenced by imprisonment, supposedly; but as we all know, his was a witness of presence in his absence. His body was in the dungeon, so to speak, but his will and his spirit escaped into the conscience of a country and the world. The most remarkable feature of his life turned out to be

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Serendipity

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Yesterday, I contemplated the collateral damage that accompanies treatment for cancer, those negative consequences of an action meant to do good. Today, to look on the bright side, we are invited to think about serendipity: the finding of valuable or agreeable things not sought for. A very famous case of serendipity was when the 3M Company, formulating a new adhesive and encountering one failure after another, discovered the compound that became the temporary glue behind the Post-It Note. That discovery was a serendipity! Chemotherapy has had some surprising side-benefits: the steroid given to amp up the anti-nausea medicine has relieved

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Collateral Damage

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The treatment for a lung cancer like mine is aggressive and hard-hitting. In my case, it involves both chemotherapy and radiation, designed first to shrink the tumor to a size that can be excised safely and also to kill any rogue cells that might be tempted to migrate through my body to make more mischief. The medicines in my chemo infusions have a proven track record, and the treatment protocol between now and surgery is non-controversial. But the regimen is tough on the body because of a reality known as collateral damage. Collateral damage is the harm done to healthy

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