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Category Archives: current events
Resolution
We are not trying to paper over the cracks. I hear the racism that drove a young man to Buffalo this weekend to kill people buying food. I hear the despair of the victims of crime, and those who feel imprisoned in their own lives. I am not suggesting, God forbid, that wearing orange, running a gun buyback, planting a seed makes everything ok. But as long as we have breath, we have to do something. Continue reading
Tabitha’s companions struggle “to assert her dignity and worth as a human being”
The women had come together to wash Tabitha’s body and commiserate, because there are always those spaces in time and culture where those who bear the title or burdens of womanhood need to come together for mutual support, encouragement, wisdom, laughter, and tears.
This may be one of those spaces in our time and culture. Continue reading
No exceptions
What are we afraid of? Expanding our understanding of what it is to be human? Jesus has already stretched it beyond our imagining, being both human and divine, mortal and resurrected, all at once. Continue reading
(Holy Saturday)
How to carry the world’s pain – the cries of the children, the palsy of their great-grandparents confused with the tremors of memory; the subtle, internal turmoil that turns digestion upside down – violence is not a visitor but an … Continue reading
Yesterday is closer than it seems
Yesterday I walked past a fallout shelter sign in the “historic district” of a run-down part of town, its triune logo sunny against the greying day, repainted, no doubt, as an artefact of interest; but yesterday is closer than it … Continue reading
On the sabbath, he went to the synagogue
It was the sabbath, so she went to the synagogue. I wonder how many people’s stories began that way last weekend, before the worship of the Jewish people was interrupted yet again by violence. It should be as safe as we feel coming to church. It should be as easy and as natural as the scripture makes it sound: it was Saturday, so he went to synagogue. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged antisemitism, conspiracy theories, Jesus, Luke 4:14-21, synagogue
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When worlds collide
Today, while our church celebrates and ruminates on the revelation of Christ to the nations – the arrival of the magi at the manger and their joyful homage to the child they recognized as the saviour of the world – the news cycle is full of analysis, unresolved shock, and grief over what happened and what so nearly happened to our nation a year ago today. Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, homily
Tagged Epiphany, insurrection, January 6, Jesus, magi
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A prayer on the threshold of the year
Dear God, are we ready for a new year? Already it is at hand, already it has arrived on distant shores and makes its way towards us like a steam ship, like a migration. Time, your creature, our sibling and companion, orbits us.
How will we greet it: as a child of your mercy or an angel of your justice or an incarnation of your endurance? Continue reading
Posted in current events, poetry, prayer
Tagged Matthew 24:37-39, Matthew 6:34, new year resolutions, New Year's Eve, psalm 118:24
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Mary’s song, our song
The name Mary cried havoc and announced the day of the Lord’s deliverance from the bonds of oppression. Mary’s word to the angel, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord,” was the acceptance of a mantle, the mantle of Miriam, the sister and peer of Moses. Mary’s, “Let it be with me” was saying, in effect, “Bring it on.” Continue reading
Posted in advent meditations, current events, sermon
Tagged Christian, Incarnation, Magnificat, Mariamme, Miriam, naming, Song of Mary
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Suffer the little children
Rumours of rumours; and the rub is that in this country, in this time, we cannot dismiss them until the day is done and the sun has set over the farthest gate. It should not be this way. Continue reading
Posted in current events, gun violence
Tagged gun violence, Isaiah 11:6, school shooting, TikTok challenge
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