2025 Wrap Up - Psalms, Hope, Expansive, and Awe

This is one of those “too long for email” posts - mostly becuase of a lot of photos. So click/tap through if you are reading this on email to see the whole thing. Also, before jumping into the rest, MaryAnn McKibben Dana and I had a great conversation on Monday morning about our favorite depictions of clergy in media. This was in preparation for our conversation on Wednesday morning at 11am ET about the new Knives Out mystery, Wake Up Dead Man. I’ll share the video here and also at our official “Pop Culture Pastors Hour” page. Ok…onto 2025…

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I guess I could turn my main themes of the year into an acronym - HEAP - Hope, Expansive, Awe, and Psalms. Well, maybe not HEAP... What about HEPA? After all, HEPA refers to that which helps to filter out harmful particles. I think that works for these themes of the year. Psalms, Hope, Expansive, and Awe - My HEPA filters for 2025. I spent about the first quarter of the year reflecting on some of the Psalms, many of which were crafted initially during some of the most difficult periods in Jewish history. They were crafted as protests that sang truths that said that the events of the world could not take their identity away from them. They were crafted as laments that acknowledged the pain and the hurt of lfie. They were crafted as songs of hope and faith to lift spirits. And they were crafted as songs telling the stories of what had happened in the past. The Psalms are still so relevant today.

Later, I shared a series of reflections on hope, inspired by OnBeing’s “Hope Portal” series midway through the year. Hope is not simply a niave expression saying that “oh, everything’s going to be ok” but instead it is a gritty and unyielding and beautiful way of engaging the world that says, much like the Psalms, that the world can take a lot from us but hope is something that the world cannot touch. There’s a great quote that has made its way around online that says: “People speak of hope as if it is this delicate ephemeral thing made of whispers and spider’s webs. It’s not. Hope has dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles, the grit of cobblestones in her hair, and just spat out a tooth as she rises for another go.” Yup. That’s hope.

Expansive then started with a short post by Heather Cox Richardson mid-summer. Rather than her normal insightful and grounded reflection upon current political events, she simply wrote a sentence about staying out on the water in her kayak... As I paddled under a bright blue sky with the sun setting beside me, it became clear to me that I needed a break from the cramped confines of our daily news. This led me down a path for a few months on seeking to receive and share senses of expansiveness. In a time where so much is about building higher walls and pulling inward, this was a needed reminder to me that the work that I am called to and how I understand the Christian faith I follow is about expansiveness and widening the circle rather than drawing it smaller.

And finally, awe. Awe shaped the end of 2025 for me. An openness to this deep sense of being connected to something bigger and that I am a small piece of a larger story. But even though I am a small part, I am a vital part as are each of us. Dacher Keltner’s definition of awe from his book Awe is so perfect....Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world. Awe ended up being the center of my Christmas Eve sermon (starts at about the 30 minute mark of the video) at our congregation - looking at how awe is a part of nearly every part of the stories that make up the birth of Jesus narratives and how awe is so necessary for us in how we engage the world.

Looking at all of these together, they really do feel like a bit of a HEPA filter - allowing me to not ignore the realities of the world but to try to filter out the harmful in order to breathe a bit clearer and to help others breathe clearer. They all speak to a sense of resistance against the oppressiveness that can overwhelm and choke us.

So with all of that, here are photos from my year that express these senses with a few links to posts from the year. I’m not going to “categorize” them but simply share them as they each reflect parts of the Psalms, of Hope, of Expansiveness, and of Awe.

Thank you for sharing this journey.

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A Wintry Start to the Year

This may be one of my favorites of the year. I loved the otherworldliness of it but how the bench continues to be above the water

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Ireland | Cork | Nature | Resistance

Maybe my favorite labyrinth that I might never get to walk again. This was in Cork, Ireland and I loved the beautiful blooming tree over the green grass surrounded by the grey and misty day

You cannot photograph the actual Book of Kells but this is a photo of a photo of one of the pages.

A memorial outside the Kilmainham Gaol prison in Dublin. It stands to remind people of those who sacrificed their own lives that others might one day be free

I adored these two pieces of street art in Dublin. The rainbow of umbrellas over what was a rather non-descript side street and then this ballet dancer with boxing gloves. No further commentary needed

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Spain | Sagrada | Las Puertas

The indescribably beautiful Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona...

On our tour of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, our guide shared how the Muslim architecture focused on beauty on the inside rather than just the exterior while the Christian architecture of the area did the exact opposite. There's a sermon illustration in that.

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Mexico City

My pastors' group met in Mexico City this year for our 25th gathering and I loved the way that the city square was lit up for Pride month. So beautiful. Hopeful. Expansive. Awe

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Hands

Finally, three “hands sculptures.” One is the two hands of a sculpture fountain in the Clifton area of Cincinnati (first two) and the third is the hand of a dancer sculpture at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio.

Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed

PS - Next post will be a Scout 2025 in review…