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Category Archives: homily
A reflection for a community celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr
Delivered at Lakeshore Christian Church, Sunday 19 January 2014 Last spring, when word got out about the women who had escaped from a cruel kidnapping, about the decade that they had spent imprisoned in an ordinary little house in an … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, meditation, prayer, story
Tagged Euclid, Lakeshore Christian Church, march, Martin Luther King Jr, neighbour, prayer walk
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A light reflection for Christmas Day
Why do we read John on Christmas morning, instead of one of those cute pageant stories from Matthew or Luke? It is because for John, this is Christmas: that Christ was born before the worlds began, as old as God, … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily
Tagged Christmas, John 1:1-18, John's Prologue, light, pageant
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Sermon for a Christmas Eve with pick-up pageant
This sermon was written for a Christmas Eve on which the Church of the Epiphany hosted a pick-up pageant, invited any and all children to come and pick out a costume to join in the play as they arrived in … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, sermon
Tagged angels, Christmas Eve, Emmanuel, God, Jesus, nativity, pageant, shepherds, unpredicability
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Blue Christmas 2013
There is a scene in the extended poem by W.H. Auden, For the Time Being, that has never left me since I first read it. The language is so visual I can almost see it. Transplanted into contemporary England – … Continue reading
Posted in homily
Tagged Blitz, Christmas, Christmas Oratorio, explosion, For the time being, gift, Jesus, Joseph, love, Mary, Matthew 1:18-25, WH Auden
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The anniversary of a Transfiguration, a mushroom cloud and a drone strike
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they … Continue reading
Posted in current events, holy days, homily
Tagged August 6, clouds, drone strike, heightened terror alert, Hiroshima, mountaintop, Transfiguration, Yemen
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Year C Easter 6: Light
Light is really special. During the last couple of centuries, scientists began to discover some really quite counter-intuitive things about light, the way that light moves, acts, has its being. We think of light as beams, rays, waves. But light … Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, meditation
Tagged EInstein, Genesis, God's face, let there be light, light, new heaven and new earth, particles, Planck, Revelation 21-22, the Lamb, wreckers
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Maundy Thursday: the sacrament of love
Ambrose, Bishop of Milan in one of the early centuries of the church, believed that the washing of feet instituted by Jesus was as sacramental, as important and as necessary as the two sacraments that the churches have all ended … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, sermon
Tagged Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, disciples, foot washing, Last Supper, love, Maundy Thursday, sacraments
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Ash Wednesday
There is, on occasion, a disconnect between our words and our actions. We smile through gritted teeth as we make polite conversation with someone we do not like. We have profound and prolonged conversations about liberty and justice as we … Continue reading
Posted in homily, sermon
Tagged 12-17, 16-21, 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10, Ash Wednesday, fast, hope, hypocrisy, Isaiah 58:1-12, Jesus, Joel 2:1-2, Matthew 6:1-6, Psalm 51
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Blue Christmas homily
I remember one Christmas Eve years ago, when I was a Sunday School teacher trying to wrangle small children dressed as shepherds and herd animals dressed as small children and deal with both kings and wise guys and try not … Continue reading
Posted in homily, sermon, story
Tagged anger, baby, Blue Christmas, Christmas, Christmas Eve, God, Jesus, joy, pageant
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