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Category Archives: sermon
The having of forgiveness
It seem to me that the way to remain unforgiven is to look forgiveness in the face and to mistake it for something altogether other, like a child in a hall of mirrors who sees distortion as reality and recoils … Continue reading
Pride
I think that the message that Jesus is sending here is that we do not need to deny that we are hungry, aching, withered, beloved and loving, marvelously (fabulously) made; but to know that God feeds us, heals us, restores us, loves us; that this is what sabbath is about: resting in the love of God. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged God loves you no exceptions, Jesus, LGBTQ, love of God, Mark 2:23-3:6, Pharisees, pride, psalm 139, sabbath, Year B Proper 4
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Sabbath
Sabbath jubilee: release for the withering will, slow unfurling of a sharply-curved grasp to rejoice in defiant mercy, revolutionary rest; the gift and obligation to lie down like a branch strewn before the quiet feet of God After a hiatus, … Continue reading
Trinity Sunday: I and we
Have you ever been in a floatation tank? You know, one of those sensory deprivation set-ups filled with salt water that makes you float as though you were in the Dead Sea; or as though you were back in the … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged birth, Body of Christ, born again, community, Jesus, Nicodemus, rebirth, Trinity
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Pentecost – Prophesy!
It is not naïve to preach peace in the midst of war, nor disarmament in a country that has turned homes into arsenals and loaded them with danger. It is not naïve to advocate instead for mercy, for grace; it is the will of God that these dry bones should live, and be filled with the Spirit of God, the dream of the kingdom of God, the vision of resurrection. Continue reading
This world
When Jesus prays for his disciples, when Jesus prays for us, who will become his disciples generations later, when Jesus prays he casts the world as a dangerous place, even an ugly place in its tendency toward hate; and yet still, he sends his disciples into the world, just as Jesus himself was sent into the world, that all who know him and see God’s love in him might know the life that is eternal. That they may know the joy that God takes in the world, the joy that Jesus knew in this world, despite everything. Continue reading
Posted in current events, gun violence, holy days, homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Ascension, discipleship, gun violence, Jesus, ordination, prayer
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Destined
One was destined to be lost so that the ninety-nine could wonder why a good shepherd would leave them alone to go looking for the lamb of perdition, imagining him already fallen beyond rescue into the valley filled with shadows … Continue reading
If …
A sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter. The theme tune for this sermon was “If”, by Bread. (No, I don’t usually give sermons a theme tune, but this one just seemed to lend itself …) There is a word … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged 1 John 5:1-6, Easter 6 Year B, John 15:9-17, love one another, unconditional
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How to command love
Can love be commanded?Does the demanding not crucify love?Gentleness can be commanded, surely – the salve, the oil – resistance, too, the other cheek slowly turned to point away from violence. Feed my sheep can be commanded, break the bread, … Continue reading
God is love
The call to love is the call of the cross; the call to be true to God’s mission of redeeming love for the world in the face of all that is against it. It is the memory of Jesus in the Garden, resisting evil not with violence but with a healing touch; submitting his own human will for control to the knowledge of God’s power to create new life even out of the compost of this world’s decay. Rooted and grounded in him, what could we become? Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
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over the water 