Category Archives: homily

Maundy Thursday: footprints

Almost all of you have heard this poem at one time or another, or seen it printed on pretty pages in the inspirational section of the bookstore or Christian gift shop. I refer, of course, to the both famous and … Continue reading

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Ash Wednesday : heart-rending, heart-mending

“Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing,” says the prophet. Rend your hearts: “a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise,” says the … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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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

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John of Damascus

A homily for Evensong at Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland. In a characteristically involving novel, Kazuo Ishiguro broached the subject of souls. I don’t want to give too much away, in case you still want to read the book or see the … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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