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Category Archives: holy days
Christmas Day 2023
The solidity of a sculpture, the fragility of glass, the intricacy of brushwork, the multivalency of language, the mystery of music, the bodies of dance, art become flesh: all of these are ways that we communicate with one another and seek to understand the human condition, even the divine. And God, who danced across the waters of creation and descended like a dove and painted the sky with stars and whispered loud words into the brains of prophets: this God who would stop at nothing to let us know that God is with us, became flesh, took on the language of love, of touch, of breath, of death, of life. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily
Tagged art, Christmas Day, creation, Incarnation, John 1:1-14
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Christmas Eve 2023
It is a sign of God’s love for us that in tenderness and innocence, in vulnerability and humility, God became not the heir to a kingly throne but the passing tenant of a stableful of animals. It matters that God chose to come among us not at the head of a battalion of angels come to join in our warring ways, but to be born from within us, to convert us from the inside out into people charged with carrying and feeding and tending to and growing the love of God among us. For with God, nothing will be impossible. Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, homily, sermon
Tagged Christmas Eve, Christmas story, Incarnation
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Lucy and the Light of the World
I think of the long aperture of a camera taking pictures of the night; instant to instant, our eyes see only the tiniest pinpricks in the darkness, but left open to the sky, the camera is able to absorb and interpret those tiny messages into images of great light and beauty; images of hope. Continue reading
Posted in advent meditations, holy days, homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Bethlehem, Desmond Tutu, Holy Land, John 1:9-14, John Donne, light, light of the world, manger, Saint Lucy, war
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Not in glory
Not in glory but in the gloom of winter glimmers a light born of love, warmed by love, worshipped by angels; humble beginnings swaddled and held close promise the earth and deliver the heavens.
Posted in advent meditations, holy days, poetry, prayer
Tagged Advent, Christmas, Incarnation, longest night
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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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Transfiguration and the transformative gospel
I enjoy a cleverly devised myth as much as the next person; but what sustains me is this: that I know that God is with us, that God loves us more than we love life itself; that when the world is too loud, or stuns us into silence, Christ is still speaking in that still, small voice, the language of mercy. Listen to him. Continue reading
The mountain
I look to the hills, but from whence is my help to come? Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer
Tagged Transfiguration. #preparingforSundaywithpoetry
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Thomas the trusting
Thomas dared to wrestle with God, as Job before him, resisting and insisting on a trial, the evidence to be enumerated in wounds; bold Thomas, brazen Thomas. I do not dare to call Christ to account, to demand such demonstration … Continue reading
The Visitation
I love that, for a moment, you embraced, neither wondering how the other came to be in her loosened state, knowing next to nothing of the contractions to come, spasms of envy slaughtering the innocents and the barely belated, cruel blows which would fell them both, … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer
Tagged Luke 1:39-56, Luke 1:44, the visitation
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Pentecost 2023: Would that all of God’s people would prophesy!
Medad and Eldad were not silenced. Peter, when the people grumbled and dismissed the disciples as drunk and deluded, said, “Nah, the bars aren’t even open for brunch yet!” They knew that they had their commission directly from the Holy Spirit. And I wonder what it was that Eldad and Medad were saying to the people in the camp, the ones getting on with their daily lives, prophesying in the midst of them while the elders and elite were pontificating from the outside… Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Acts 2:1-21, Holy Spirit, John 20:19-23, Numbers 11:24-30, Pentecost, prophecy
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