The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor © 2023, Dr. Tamilio The story of the woman at the well is a curious one. It appears early in John’s Gospel, and the context of the story (which is so far removed from us) makes it difficult for modern readers to fully understand (let alone appreciate) the […]
© 2023, Dr. Tamilio The first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis are often referred to as the primordial history. This is where we hear stories about the Creation of the world, of Adam and Eve, of Noah and the great flood, of the tower of Babel. Starting with chapter twelve, we get the […]
The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor © 2023, Dr. Tamilio I came across some statistics recently that disturbed me greatly: a preacher was explaining why we are in the post-Christian age. The younger generation does not go to church. There are many reasons for this, but at the heart of it all: they believe […]
The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor © 2023, Dr. Tamilio Do you remember Hugh Hefner? (Did you ever think you’d hear a sermon begin with that question?) Hefner interviewed Jimmy Carter during the run-up to the 1976 Presidential election. Carter said, “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in […]
2023, Dr. Tamilio I came across the following story recently.[1] There is a mere strip of sand called Castle Island near the eastern end of the Bahamas archipelago. Few people are aware of it — and, as tiny and isolated as it is, Castle Island is important for the lighthouse that is its sole source […]
The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor © 2023, Dr. Tamilio I remember reading the book Tuesdays with Morrie when it was a bestseller years ago. It is the true story of sportswriter Mitch Albom spending time with his former college professor Morrie Schwartz as the latter was in the process of dying. It was, […]
The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor © 2023, Dr. Tamilio At the advice of my colleague, Rev. Dee Scott, and our Student Minister, Alex Killian, I started watching the series The Chosen last week. It is a series by the filmmaker Dallas Jenkins currently streaming on the Peacock network. It is a historical drama […]
The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor © 2023, Dr. Tamilio Antisemitism is on the rise in the United States. According to Mary Markos, it is up 42% in New England, particularly in our own state: good ol’ Massachusetts.[1] About a week ago, a swastika was painted on a sidewalk in Swampscott. Recently, the musician […]
The trek the Church has been traveling for the last four weeks will come to a climax in three days when even those outside the ecclesia celebrate Christmas. For Christians, this is the day that we commemorate the birth of Jesus — when God decided to enter the human drama definitively as one of us. […]
The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III © 2022. All rights reserved. T.S. Eliot is not the only poet I love. There are many others: Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Geoffrey Hill. I especially love Anne Sexton. Sexton was a twentieth-century poet who lived in Newton and taught at Boston University. Her poetry is amazing: […]