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Category Archives: prayer
Revolve
Our silence blinding noise our haste a purpling bruise our invention miscarried justice moebius-stripped somersaulting our balance blurred and silver leaving lightning after-burns, devils dancing our defence a deformed pitchfork our hope embalmed our light eclipsed out darkness undermined our … Continue reading
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
Cleansing the temple
Christ, cleanse our temple courts where money changes hands to purchase sacrificial lambs offered on the high altar hymned with thoughts and prayers and the black sheep, tethered, set aside for the devotions of white-robed acolytes, while mourners shuffle ceaseless intercessions … Continue reading
Their cross, our cross
I have been trying to imagine how the words of Jesus to the pre-resurrection people would have sounded. We cannot hear of the cross without spiritualizing it, sublimating it post-resurrection. To have the same impact today as he had on that crowd in first-century Galilee, what might Jesus say? Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, prayer, sermon, story
Tagged Jesus, repentance, righteousness, salvation, take up your cross, Year B Lent 2
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This is not Sunday’s sermon
On Sunday, I may speak of mountaintop miracles, the art of the divine fuller, bleaching all blemishes out of our vision of God Incarnate, revealing glory. But today is Friday. The week was long and the mountain high and hard. … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, prayer, sermon preparation, story
Tagged Epiphany, Jesus, Transfiguration
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The Feast of the Presentation
Simeon has been dismissed. Anna shed her widow’s weeds, went dancing with the turtle doves, snowing feathers; all that remains is dust and the rubble of a memory, the echo of a prayer, and a child, caught by his woven … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer, story
Tagged Jerusalem, Nunc Dimittis, Simeon and Anna, The Feast of the Presentation
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Marking time
The action of turning the calendar page is a challenge to understand how each day anchors us in that moment between the gravity of time and the weightlessness of eternity. Continue reading
Posted in prayer, story
Tagged creation, Ecclesiastes 1:9, eternity, Genesis 1, psalm 118:24, time
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Discernment
I asked God a hundred times or so to show me the way. Trying to wrestle guidance from the silence was like wringing a dry towel in the desert and hoping for water to soothe a burning tongue. Today, whether … Continue reading
Consider hibernation
a sabbatical of sorts… Continue reading
Wordless
Wordless came the Word of God; not silent, as the night revolved around him snuffling, yawning, suckling, sighing, crying out the love of God, wordless, gazing into the eternity between one body and the next.
Posted in advent meditations, holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer
Tagged Christmas, John 1:1-18, Word of God
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over the water 