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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
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Category Archives: current events
Blessed are those who mourn …
Blessedness is not about material success nor even the absence of suffering in this life: it is about walking ever more closely with God. The closer we come, the greater our understanding of the rewards of mercy, the heights of humility, the purity of love, the power of peace. So yes, blessed are those who mourn when God Themself is weeping. Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, sermon
Tagged All Saints, All Souls, beatitudes, grief, Matthew 5:1-12, war in the Holy Land
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Afterwords
Dear God, we cry, dear Lord, how much blood can humanity shed before we become something other than the body that you formed, and the spirit that you breathed, and the image that you called very good? My Christ, can … Continue reading
Posted in current events, gun violence
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Stop the bleeding
Dear God,we cry, dear Lord,how much blood can humanity shedbefore we become something otherthan the body that you formedand the spirit that you breathedand the image that you calledvery good? My Christ,can we lay down our weaponsand crawl beneath your … Continue reading
Posted in current events, gun violence, poetry, prayer
Tagged Maine, mass shooting, war
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The flight to Egypt (through Gaza)
I can only imagine that you went that way, searching the skies by night for a sign of Herod’s madness overtaking, or a message from the Magi flashed through the heavens; at twilight I scan for the satellites that bring news and war to stream down like … Continue reading
Posted in current events, poetry, prayer
Tagged Gaza, Herod, holy family, Holy Innocents, magi, Matthew 2, war
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The erosion of innocence
Every night, we listened to the rockets fall. The one night that all was quiet, no one could sleep. Still, the most danger I fell into that summer was from the heat, high waters, and the inappropriate appetites of certain men. One evening I sat on the hillside with my arm around a friendly Doberman who had planted himself between my body and that of a young man who had tried to separate me from the herd. I felt safe. Continue reading
Posted in current events, story
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Dressed for a wedding or a war
A sermon for 15 October 2023, on Year A Proper 23 readings Matthew 22:1-14, Philippians 4:1-9, Exodus 32:1-14, at the Church of the Epiphany, Euclid, Ohio Paul writes, Beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, … Continue reading
Burned
This week’s #preparingforSundaywithpoetry is informed not only by the Gospel and its parable of rejection, revenge, celebration, and their cycle, but inevitably by the images it calls up of contemporary violence, war, and burning cities; God save the innocents. After … Continue reading
No stray bullets
There are no stray bullets, just as there were no stray nails pounding themselves into the Cross. Continue reading
Don’t we?
It has been a horrible weekend for gun violence in America. I cannot keep my heart from going out to the family of the teenager gunned down at a high school football game, while I was listening to the strains … Continue reading
Posted in current events, gun violence, prayer
Tagged gun violence, Jacksonville, prayer, racism, school shootings
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Welcome
Welcome is costly. God is a gracious and abundant giver – but God also asks of us our love, our devotion, our service to one another and the creation which God made us to tend. Sometimes, sure, it seems as though God is asking a lot. Ask Abraham. … Continue reading
