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Category Archives: lectionary reflection
Here is love
Here is love that doesn’t bury grief, but anoints it, attends to it. Here is love that doesn’t count the cost, but pours itself out so that it is felt, sensed, perceived far beyond the feet that receive it: “the house was filled with the fragrance of it.” Here is love that inspires others to love. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged anointing, Holy Week, John 12:1-8, Judas Iscariot, Lent, love, Mary of Bethany, Year C Lent 5
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Holy ground
God said, “This is holy ground.” In the middle of the wilderness, to the side of the path, from the heart of a desert shrub, God spoke, and God said, “This, too, is holy ground.” Because there is no place on earth that God has abandoned. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Balaam, Exodus 3:1-15, God's mercy, Incarnation, Lent, Moses, Numbers 22, Ukraine, war, year c lent 3
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Love your enemies
The burden of love outweighs all other duties, and not only toward those who love us. Even our secular treaties and rules of engagement declare it to be true. And still, Jesus goes further. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged love your enemies, sermon on the plain
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The level place
We stand on ground that is spinning at astronomical speed, hurtling through the immensity of space, at an enormous distance from the sun. No wonder we feel unstable! But Jesus is our level ground. He is here with us still, in the level place, steady and steadfast in a world full of trouble, rising ab Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Jeremiah 17:5-10, Jesus, level ground, Luke 6:17-26, selfishness, sermon on the plain
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God has warm legs?
Conditions change, the world turns, people grow, some get sick, some get better, some flee to Egypt, some return. We cannot expect, nor should we try, to recreate the past; but there is sunlight in the future, too, and flashes of inspiration. And there is warmth still in the relationships that endure. The cat, when she has given up on the flash of light, curls up in the patient knowledge that sooner or later, someone with warm legs will feed her; that she is beloved. Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
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On the sabbath, he went to the synagogue
It was the sabbath, so she went to the synagogue. I wonder how many people’s stories began that way last weekend, before the worship of the Jewish people was interrupted yet again by violence. It should be as safe as we feel coming to church. It should be as easy and as natural as the scripture makes it sound: it was Saturday, so he went to synagogue. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged antisemitism, conspiracy theories, Jesus, Luke 4:14-21, synagogue
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Working on a miracle
Some say that the next wars will be fought not over oil but over water; but it doesn’t have to be that way. When one runs short, it is all of our business. There is no, “What is that to me?” Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Amos 5:24, John 2:1-11, Psalm 36:7-8, the work is not yet done, wedding at Cana
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The gifts of the wise ones
The Feast of the Epiphany is a new year of sorts for us, the people of Epiphany. Who knows what this one will bring. But if we are able to keep our hearts and minds and expectations open; if we deploy the gifts of humility, creativity, faith that the magi, the wise ones have taught us, then we may find unexpected grace, unlooked-for epiphanies, the glory of God waiting for us to stumble upon it as the year takes shape, growing like a child, full of curiosity, wonder, and delight. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged creativity, Epiphany, faith, gifts, humility, magi, three kings, wise men
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Joseph, the dreamers
With the eyes of his heart enlightened, Joseph knew how to pay attention to the whispers of God, how to be guided by love, how to risk giving everything up, giving everything to the project of God’s incarnation as the Christ. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Joseph, Matthew 2, open hearts, refugees
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It’s (not too) complicated
It means beating swords into ploughshares, guns into shovels, removing them from the hands and the lives and the deaths of our children. There is no deeper shadow cast than the deaths of children, and the enormity of the problem before us is our mountain to climb. Continue reading
Posted in advent meditations, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Advent 2, gun violence, mustard seed faith, prophets
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over the water 