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Category Archives: holy days
Naming the idols
Some are easy to spot, sporting colourful plumage;
they make fast promises they cannot keep. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, meditation, poetry, prayer
Tagged idols, Lent
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Ash Wednesday: grace is not in vain
Lent is a good discipline for me. The soul-searching, the self-denial, the study of God’s grace is something that I need constantly if I am to recognize the enormity, the ridiculous span and spread of God’s mercy.
But constantly is hard to do. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10, Ash Wednesday, church calendar, confession, fast, grace, Lent, reconciliation
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When we can’t see the end of the story
It can feel sometimes as though Jesus has withdrawn to the backwaters of Galilee, , and we do not know when we will see him again, nor whether he will come with whips and cords to clean out the temples of power, or even our own house; or whether he will come in chains, bowed down by the burdens of the principalities that still oppose the reign of God, its justice, its mercy, its peace; or whether he will come in glory, a light to shine the world toward salvation. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged gospel, grief, Luke 2:22-40, Nunc Dimittis, Simeon and Anna, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, waiting
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It is too light a thing
We see our fellow godchildren as like us, or not like us, or invisible to us. But it is God’s salvation that we proclaim, and that we claim for ourselves, and God created light to shine from one end of the universe to the other. The light of God’s salvation is for everyone. It is the light which enlightens every body, which lifts every burden, which anoints every wound with healing. Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged anti-Semitism, immigration, Isaiah 49:6, light, Martin Luther King Jr, Matthew 11:28-30, racism
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Light speaks
light whispers, flushed and fevered,
smouldering out of sight to
the point of conflagration. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon, sermon preparation
Tagged Isaiah 49:6, light, Martin Luther King Jr, Year A Epiphany 2
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Baptizing Christ, becoming Christlike
With God’s help, we baptize her. With God’s help, we rise refreshed with her, remembering that God is with us, Emmanuel, come hell or high water, and that God has anointed us to bring that good news to the world. Continue reading
Epiphany 2020: First, do no harm
If we are people of the Epiphany, then we, too, are stargazers. We have been told, commissioned by angels and dreams, to find another road. We worship the Prince of Peace in a world at war. We would rather offer gifts of gold to helpless babies than bribes to politicians or kings. We find truth in the gospel of love rather than the mantra of success. We worship the God of the manger and the Christ of the Cross. We follow Christ through the empty tomb, knowing that the star can take us only so far. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Epiphany, Le Chambon, magi, nonviolence, Philip Hallie
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Star of Bethlehem
I scour the skies to find The light shines in the darkness a false star rising and the darkness did not overcome it haloed with fire power When they saw that the star had stopped (not everything that wears (he … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer
Tagged drone strikes, Epiphany, signs, star of bethlehem, war and peace
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Word and witness
It is only the creative order of the Word, of God, that makes sense of the world, that sheds light on the life of the world. It is in Jesus, in the humility of birth and Incarnation, even in the confusion of the Cross, in the victory of Resurrection, the transcendence of Ascension that we find light in the darkness. It is in the light of the Word that life makes sense, with all of its joy and all of its promise, even its pain; with forgiveness and with justice, in the Word it becomes a story we can live with. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Herod, Isaac Asimov, John 1:1-18, R.S. Thomas, Word of God
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Bethlehem
In the ancient city, haunted by memories of feast and famine, exile and exodus, the earth itself makes room, Creation shifting and splitting as angels sing Glory out of cold stars shining with old light. Out of the holy darkness, … Continue reading
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