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Mary S. Hulst

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Killer

I kill people all the time. I try not to. I've been working on it. But then another news story airs about another slimy politician and I find myself yelling at the TV, belittling the person, creating fresh insults, and cheering when my favorite late-night comedians stick it to 'em good. There's blood on my hands. Oh, you may say, we all do that. We all debase from a distance. We all deride from the La-Z-Boy. The football coach who…
Mary S. Hulst
November 1, 2011
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Ashes to Joy

In early Lent I posted the following as my Facebook status, "I am brimming full of joy!" My liturgically minded friends quickly weighed in: "Well, stop it! It's Lent," wrote one. "Here, here! Ashes. Death. Sin. Think on these things," wrote another. It was all in good fun, and my friends made me laugh, but it also points to an odd association with Lent: that this season is anti-joy. That we should indeed sit around in sackcloth and ashes and…
Mary S. Hulst
March 1, 2010
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Spring Training for Pentecost

This verse from Song of Songs brings to mind two people at the same time. The first is long-time Detroit Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell, who would use this verse to open the broadcast season from spring training. The second person is a former parishioner, whom I'll call Linda, who was a lifelong Tigers fan. Linda followed the Tigers closely, her spirits rising and falling with their winloss record. She grew up watching the Tigers as I did, and we would…
Mary S. Hulst
May 1, 2009
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For All the Saints

NOVEMBER 2007: INSIDE OUT These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. --Heb 11:39-40 Five years ago this month, I was in Paris. And my friend was dying in Michigan. I had left for Paris very much aware that I might never see him again. The cancer had hit fast and hard, and the…
Mary S. Hulst
November 15, 2007
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(Re)telling the Old, Old Story

Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you insect Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Now, I will make you a threshing sledge, sharp, new and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff. Isaiah 41:14-15 Isaiah 41 is rooted in an oft-told story of redemption. The word redeemer here--goel--is also translated as "kinsman-redeemer." Isaiah's audience knew who had played that…
Mary S. Hulst
February 15, 2006
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Romantics, Cynics, and Shalom at the Movies

I am a romantic. I like movies with happy endings. I justify this by saying there is enough in real life to make me sober and discontent, so watching You've Got Mail for the seventeenth time is a nice little escape to soothe my battered soul. Not so fast, suggests Robert Johnston. Those angst-ridden films have a spiritual purpose as well. In his book, Useless Beauty, Johnston holds the canonical tome Ecclesiastes in one hand and his remote control in…
Mary S. Hulst
December 16, 2005
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Faithful Doubters

Thomas is the kind of guy anyone would want on her team. He was loyal, he was brave, he assessed situations well, and he wasn't prone to flights of fancy. When Jesus decided to go to Bethany to raise Lazarus, even though that area was crawling with people opposed to his ministry, Thomas said, "Let us go with him so that we may die with him." When everyone else was gathered inside locked doors on Easter Sunday, Thomas was out.…
Mary S. Hulst
February 15, 2004