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Category Archives: lectionary reflection
Water, wine, and justice like an ever-flowing stream
On sabbatical, I visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I can’t begin to describe briefly the impact of walking that history of inhumanity and human dignity set up in opposition to one another, the weight of those ceilings, each one a century, and the heaviness of your footsteps as you climb closer to our own day of reckoning. Continue reading
Keeping promises
I have no doubt that God was with me in that river, whose banks Jesus knew, whose rapids perhaps he had played in. I have no doubt that God would have stayed with me, whether I lived or died that day. But in order to remain alive, in that moment, I also needed my people, the little community of foreigners with whom I had set out that morning in a black tyre inner tube to float down the river towards the Sea of Galilee. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged baptism, baptismal covenant, community, Isaiah 43:2
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A baptism
In Galilee, a root gripped my foot,
the tree of life inverted, submerged … Continue reading
As God is my promise
What would the world be if we all acted as Elizabeth? How would it be if we were to greet everyone as Mary, the God-bearer, since we know that everyone who passes before us bears the image of God? Continue reading
Posted in advent meditations, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Advent 4, Elizabeth, Euclid, God-bearer, immigration, joy, Mary, refugees, the visitation
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TLK W GOD
It is our calling to cry out the goodness of God in Christ; not as a way of advertising our own services, but for the sake of the gospel itself, because we know that life is better with God, that we are comforted by the Sacraments of Christ, and the communion of saints. Continue reading
Posted in advent meditations, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Advent, bumper sticker, Christmas, Eva ngelism, God, Jesus, Year C Advent 2
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Stand up for Advent
Do not become consumed by signs of turmoil. Stand up. Raise your heads. Give voice to the gospel. Expect God. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Advent, Bethlehem, climate change, gospel, gun violence, Holy Land, immigration, Luke 21:25-36, St Nicholas, Year C Advent 1
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The widow’s might
what if the widow’s mite was hope, and she spent all she had to live on
Posted in haiku, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer
Tagged Mark 12:38-44, widow's mite, Year B Proper 27
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Salt and sabbatical
But that is the theology of Thomas the Tank Engine, who longs only to hear the Fat Controller call him “a useful little engine.” It is not the theology found in the Bible nor in the Word of God, Jesus the Christ, who celebrates the meek and the helpless, the poor in spirit and the hopeless, the errant and the outcast, the ungodlike. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, prayer, sermon
Tagged James 5:13-20, Jesus, Mark 9:38-50, theology, Thomas the Tank Engine, Year B Proper 21
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Conjuring Esther
Esther has become difficult to read. Her story makes me angry and afraid. We read it like a fairytale. But like so many fairytales, it teems with themes of horror dressed up in satin and silk. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon preparation, story
Tagged #ChurchToo, #metoo, Esther, sex trafficking
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The great and the good
And now Jesus was stuck on the floor with a sleeping baby, his hands full, his feet with no feeling left in them, and the child’s mother had gone back to work. There was nothing for it but to continue to wait on the baby, serving it with patience and with love. … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged children, church, greatness, Jesus, love, Mark 8:27-38, Year B Proper 20
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over the water 