Category Archives: resurrection

April 30, 2012

Jesus is the Pastor of this Church

By Keith Anderson

Jesus the Good Shepherd from the Catacomb of Priscilla

A few weeks ago, Jenny and I took our kids into Boston to see the Big Apple Circus. It comes to town every year around April School Vacation, setting up its big tent at Government Center in City Hall plaza. We go every year and its always a great time.

You might think, quite reasonably, that getting four kids into the city, to the circus, (bringing, if you will, the circus to the circus) and back out again would be would be quite enough excitement for one day. And you’d probably be right. But this day we decided to press our luck.

After the circus, we took the kids down to Quincy Market for lunch. Of course, each person wanted something different to eat, so we navigated up and down that long food court, ferrying food, finding seats, making sure no one got swallowed up by the crowds. And again, you’d think that would be quite a full day. But no.

We then walked from Quincy Market to the Aquarium to see the sea lions in their outdoor tank, leading the kids across some of the busiest roads in the city, keeping them back from the curb, making sure they were crossing at the right time. And then, seemingly for good measure, we went past the boat docks with their drop offs down to the water. All for a few minutes with the sea lions…and then back along the same route to the car.

At the end of all that, I was totally exhausted. All the holding hands, calling names, keeping them away from the road, making sure they didn’t get lost at the Market. My goodness, it was a lot of work.

And it gave me a newfound appreciation for shepherds, doing this work every day, all day, herding all kinds of (less cooperative) sheep from place to place, keeping them in order, safe, and together. I only wish I had had one of those big shepherd’s hooks and a sheep dog to help keep my own little flock in line. Continue reading

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April 10, 2012

Plunged Into Resurrection: Easter Sunday 2012

By Keith Anderson



Each summer, my family heads north – to a lakeside cottage in the Gatineau Hills of Quebec. Its a great experience for our kids. They get to do all kinds of things they can’t in the city, like eating the raspberries that grow wild along the side of the gravel road.

One of the most delightful things is watching them swim in the lake and most especially watching them learn to jump off the dock into the water. Its like this little rite of passage for each of the kids. They start of tentatively, putting a foot in, climbing down the ladder, step in holding your hand, but then eventually they build up enough courage to let it rip and jump.

Just the other day I came across a picture of our daughter Tess, in which she is practicing her newfound skill jumping off the dock. She’s only two and a half years old. She has floaties strapped to her back, tiny pink water shoes to match her pink bathing suit. The photograph captures the exact moment her foot leaves the dock. She’s an inch in the air, arms, hands, and every finger extended (no coincidence it looks like a cross to me), seemingly suspended between the dock and the water.

And it occurred to me looking at this photograph: that this is an Easter moment. This is a moment of resurrection: where we leave behind the security of what we know – the dock – and jump into the something new – launching ourselves to the air, plunging down into the water, only to discover its embrace and then to be raised back up to its surface. Continue reading

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May 9, 2011

Finding Love on the Way to the Chinese Truck

By Keith Anderson


Did you ever have a moment in your life when you had this sense that there was something more going on, something special happening, but you just didn’t know exactly what?

I did.  It was 14 years ago and like many stories in my life, it starts with food.   I was in Divinity School at the time, living in the Divinity Hall dormitory.  It was lunchtime and I was heading out to the “Chinese Truck,” one of a little village of food trucks near Div Hall, which was frequented by students, faculty and staff.  It was the best Chinese food you could get from a truck – which is not saying a lot.

As I left the dorm, I opened the door and there was this young woman sitting on the steps with four giant bags.  She was clearly one of the new residents moving in.  I curbed my hunger long enough to ask her if she needed help – a small miracle in and of itself.  She explained that she was a new student moving in, but the dorm was locked.  The resident assistants must have taken a lunch break themselves.  I unlocked the door for her, carried her bags to her room, and we chatted briefly.  Then I went to lunch.  And that’s how I met my wife, Jenny.

The whole encounter lasted, at most, five minutes, but there was the sense, I do remember, the sense of something more.  In retrospect, it was the beginning of something life-changing.

Our lives are full of these kinds of moments – moments large and moments small, where there is this sense that something more is happening, though we’re not sure what, and not sure how, and then later as we look back, it we see it.  Yes, there was something more was happening there, in that moment.  And we see how an everyday moment, a daily ritual, like going to lunch can turn out to be one of the defining moments in our lives. Continue reading

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