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Category Archives: lectionary reflection
A house of cedar
“Wherever you have gone,” God says, “I have gone with you. Whatever trials you have faced, I have faced beside you. Whatever dangers befell you, I stood before you. What makes you think that in order to keep me by your side, you have to build me a cedar box, store me like cloth in mothballs?” Continue reading
If compassion were king
Never think that there is nothing to be done. Never imagine that your smallest gesture of compassion, your insufficient word of kindness, your little piece of love in action is wasted. Continue reading
Your faith
A sermon for hard times. The readings include Mark 5:21-43, in which a woman with a 12-year chronic condition sneaks up to the hem of Jesus robe to be healed, and a child is restored to her parents. There is … Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, meditation, sermon, story
Tagged faith, hard times, healing, Jesus, Mark 5:21-43, miracle, Year B Proper 8
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David and Goliath
Jesus tells us several times that if we want to see God at work, we could do worse than to look to the children. “Let the little children come to me,” he said, “for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs;” and again, “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged asylum seekers, child of God, children, David and Goliath, gun violence, Jesus, refugees
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The madness of Christ Jesus
The Wisdom of God is, as has been well-documented, foolishness to the wise philosopher. Utter foolishness. Continue reading
What I might have said otherwise
God speaks through the children to wake us up to the call we have as Christians: to proclaim the love of God in word and deed, in all that we say and do, working with God to create good even out of all that goes wrong and awry in this world, knowing that God has created it, has created us, for God’s good purposes, and out of God’s unmitigated love. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged #WearOrange, call of Samuel, Harold Kushner, sabbath controversies, Track 1, Year B Proper 4
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One/three/seven billion
It matters that we know a God who will not allow for isolation, or desolation, who does not disown God’s children, but who sets out time and again, through the prophets, through the wilderness, through the sacraments, through the Spirit to remind us that we are not only created in God’s image, but that God has committed Godself to us, irrevocably, unbreakably. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged Trinity
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Our own devices
Small victories, born of God, have a profound effect on the people who encounter them. Small victories born of God, born of love, grow up to conquer the world Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged 1 John 4, baptism, beloved community, Constantine, cross
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Love/hate/relationship
“Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen,” warns the letter writer, and if we are in any way human, our heart sinks. We know whereof we are guilty. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, sermon preparation
Tagged 1 John 4, abide, family, hate, James Cone, John 15:1-8, love, Year B Easter 5
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Resurrection and reality
If you think that the world is so bewildering that nothing makes sense, Jesus has come so patiently to point out his hands, his feet, his broken body, his own spear-pierced heart, to tell us that he is with us, that he has redeemed all of it. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged death, doubt, Humboldt, Resurrection
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