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Category Archives: sermon
Good Friday
The cross is a mirror. It shows us what we are not, as well as what we are; the embodiment of God, the epitome of humanity: images mundane and immortal in one body.The cross is a mirror. The cross is a mirror. The hammer falls and innocent flesh … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, poetry, prayer
Tagged Good Friday, gun violence, Holy Week, Lent, mercy, the Cross
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Preaching from the shadows
The sound of mallet on metal
wood and splintered flesh
ricochets around the city walls
shivering the fabric of
the crowd that clothes the alleyways
too often lost in thought and prayers
we fall without an echo
into the open grave Continue reading
Afterwards
It was the following day that sealed it for him waking with the rooster an hour before dawn the darkness of the room unfamiliar tangled in bedsheets he shivered still straining his hope to conjure up that sun light and … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation, story
Tagged John 11, Lazarus, Year A Lent 5
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Seeing, seen
It is no sin to be blind, but it is sinful willfully to avert our eyes from injustice, to pretend to see no evil, to blur out the blemishes that spoil our vision of our own lives, our own country, our own souls. “You who say you see, your sin remains,” he warns us, we who have seen the light, who have been awoken. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged ableism, cross, injustice, John 9, Psalm 51, Year A Lent 4
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Living water: A love story
Read in a certain way, the banter between Jesus and the woman can sound almost like a flirtation; but the spark is the long, slow heat of the love of God that has drawn each of them to an understanding of how God so loves the world.
In the noonday, the sun has stood still as they linger in the light of eternity. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged Genesis 1:1-2, Jesus, love story, Spirit, woman at the well, woman of Samaria, Year A Lent 3
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Thaw
A little Lenten story, based on Psalm 104:29-30: When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection
Tagged Lent, living water, Psalm 104:29-30, winter
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Living water
I have always loved the sea. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon preparation, story
Tagged creation, John 4, living water, ocean, saltwater, sea, seaside, womb, Year A Lent 3
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Running out of water in the holy lands
A little Lenten story First in the north, between fruit trees and shade, it seemed it should be more difficult than this to die, except for the envy of avocadoes and apricots, hoarding the hidden streams of mercy for themselves; It made more sensein the south, where … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer
Tagged Exodus 17:1-7, John 4:5-42, water, Year A Lent 3
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Born of water and the Spirit
I am not preaching this Sunday, and there was no little Lenten story/legend this morning, so consider this an offering to replace them both. ____________ You know, although it wasn’t recorded, that when God made Adam — dust of the … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation, story
Tagged Genesis 2:4-7, John 3:1-17, year a lent 2
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Saint Non
When David was born, and heaven and earth conspired to keep him and his mother safe from predatory evil, the earth split open once again, in sympathy with her birth pangs, and the rock on which she leaned melted like wax to take the imprint of her hand. Dewi was born into deep mercy. Continue reading