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Category Archives: current events
David and Goliath
Jesus tells us several times that if we want to see God at work, we could do worse than to look to the children. “Let the little children come to me,” he said, “for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs;” and again, “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged asylum seekers, child of God, children, David and Goliath, gun violence, Jesus, refugees
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Deliver us from evil
As a Christian I am bound by the Law to love God and to love my neighbor. As an Episcopalian I have promised to respect the dignity of every human being. As an American citizen, I am horrified that our government is using the forced removal of children to punish and intimidate parents who would seek asylum, refuge, or simply a home in these United States. Such practice is antithetical to human dignity, human rights, and God’s intention for the human family. Continue reading
Posted in current events
Tagged family separation, father’s day, immigration, prayer
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Fraction
The crack of the communion host like a whip, like bone, like the click of handcuffs; how far we have roamed from the upper room: warm bread softly torn, love-fuelled bodies, blood fired by passion’s wine. You come to us … Continue reading
Posted in current events, poetry, prayer
Tagged Christ, Christian values, Communion, family separation
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Pentecost: love and fire
If fire represents the Holy Spirit, then we have blasphemed the Spirit of God by making fire the creature of our destruction instead of the essence of our life.
The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, cannot be tamed, and does not destroy when given free reign, because she is not our creature to control, but she is the very essence of God, who is love. Continue reading
Eleison
Christ, have mercy, we expostulate once more. Continue reading
Posted in current events, poetry, prayer, story
Tagged #SantaFeShooting, #thoughtsandprayers, gun violence, school shootings
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Resurrection and reality
If you think that the world is so bewildering that nothing makes sense, Jesus has come so patiently to point out his hands, his feet, his broken body, his own spear-pierced heart, to tell us that he is with us, that he has redeemed all of it. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged death, doubt, Humboldt, Resurrection
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Palm Sunday 2018: outsourcing peace
It is hard to keep up with the Prince of Peace, but I learned a valuable lesson years ago from a philosopher named Tony whose day job was selling burglar alarms. Continue reading
Seventeen
At ten o’clock on the fourteenth day of the third month of year two thousand eighteen of this portion of our history, twenty-eight days after seventeen of their generation died in one school, in one day, countless students will leave their classes, searching for one more word of covenant, one more promise of life redeemed from the chaos. Continue reading
Posted in current events, gun violence, story
Tagged beatitudes, Noah's Ark, numerology, school shootings
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Idols made of metal
The bronze serpent was not an amulet, but an icon of futility; an emblem of the impotence of evil in the sight of a gracious God.
The modern casting would be an AR-15 made into a museum piece, rendered harmless, useless, toothless by its irrelevance, not empowered by false reverence. Continue reading
Sinners at the cross of angry Jesus
I’m not going to go through the Commandments one by one, because frankly, unless we can reconcile our fundamental issues with the first three and the prohibition on killing, not to mention loving our neighbour, I do not see a way for us to achieve any kind of passing grade. Continue reading
over the water 