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Category Archives: lectionary reflection
A new creation
You know the saying, that the leopard cannot change his spots. A thistle cannot become a fig tree. But there is one, there is one who can make all things new. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged covenant, Genesis 15:1-18, Matthew 7:15-20, new creation
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Let go to let love grow
A sermon for Tuesday in the first week of the 2023 Chautauqua season. The first reading is Lot’s separation from Abram in Genesis 13. __________________ After all those years in the bosom of his grandfather and uncle, I cannot imagine … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged Abraham, Abram, Chautauqua, family, Genesis 13:2-18, golden rule, Karol Jackowski, Lot
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Judge not?
There is but one judge whose acumen is trustworthy and true. Fortunately, God is infamous for steadfast forbearance, slow to anger, and abiding in great mercy. Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Beth Kissileff, judge not, Matthew 7:1-5, Stephen holmgren, Tree of Life
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… But do not be afraid
A sermon for the first week of the Chautauqua Institution season, 2023, Year A Proper 7 _____________ There’s nothing like starting in the middle. With no context, no backstory to soften the blow, we arrive for a week at Chautauqua … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged family, family divisions, Jesus, Matthew 10:23-39, sparrow, Year A Proper 7
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When the cat preached the sermon
The cat wanted to add a word on behalf of the wolf. She said:
“Once, in my ancestral imagination, I was a lioness, fierce and feared. I still sometimes examine my claws in awe at what havoc they might wreak. I look at my sister’s teeth and recognize the fangs of an ancient nature. Yet here we lie, content to be coddled and cuddled by a softer species. Even if I caught the cardinal, I wouldn’t know quite what to do with him. I am not sorry, but while I am still shaped like a predator, I have become quite domesticated, tamed by love. You see, a leopard cannot change his spots, and a wolf will always have a complicated relationship with the sheep, but love changes everything. Love feeds the birds and saves me from my worst impulses towards them. Love sets a table before me in the midst of many distractions and attractions, and bids me eat.” Continue reading
Sheep
Can a sheep teach a wolf to eat grass? To enjoy the tender snap of clover stalk, the flake of its flower upon the red and eager tongue? What does the wolf know or love of green pastures, still less … Continue reading
Radical
Yesterday morning, when the sun rose, this was a shotgun barrel, designed for hunting, for ending life. By lunchtime, it had become a garden tool, forged in fire and hammered out by my talented husband, designed to dig into the earth that God has made, out of which God formed the plants and the trees, out of which God crafted humanity, and breathed into it the spark of life. Radical transformation: a tool designed to kill had been converted into a tool to grow new life. Continue reading
Mercy
Learn what this means, he says: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. But mercy, pitiless in its command, requires the sacrifice of satisfaction, Schadenfreude, vengeance. Righteous indignation; the bitter little consolations that coddle a sore, soured, soul. It makes one wonder, honestly, if he truly, truly understands the meaning of either Word. … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged Hosea 6:6, Jesus, Matthew 9:9-13, mercy, sacrifice, Year A Proper 5
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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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over the water 