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Category Archives: sermon preparation
Where your treasure is
This upcoming Sunday’s Gospel reading includes Jesus’ aphorism: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:34 and parallels). Last week, looking for something I have already forgotten, I found at the back of my bedside drawer the name tag of my grandmother’s dog, which I have apparently and largely unknowingly kept for some forty years; hence this poem. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation, spiritual autobiography
Tagged Luke 12:34, Matthew 6:21, treasure
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Opportunist
Robin alighted as soon as I mowed the first swathe of grass, an aspiring scavenger sifting the cuttings for prey. Undeterred by the turning blade, it tilted an eye as though to say, we are not so different, you and … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon preparation
Tagged greatest, greatness, Mark 9:30-37, Year B Proper 20
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But who do you say that I am?
This poem was first published at the Episcopal Cafe When Christ confronted the demons, they cried outin loud voices and with forked tongues,“We know who you are, Holy One, Son of God,hope of the nations and light of the world!”And … Continue reading
The dry bones
They must have been famished,that bunch of bones shrugged together,flesh and sinew awaiting breath.How long had they been fasting in the dust? They were surely parched;their skin must have sagged,their steps dragged – how manycalories does resurrection burn, anyway? Did … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon preparation
Tagged creation, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Pentecost, Resurrection, Valley of Dry Bones
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A prayer for the preacher when words fail
January 9, 2021 Beyond Jordan, the baptizer cried repentance, preaching to snakes, devouring locusts, razing the wilderness with his words, confronting kings and drowning sins. At his neck, the knowledge of his own humility, the prickling of glory about to … Continue reading
Posted in current events, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged John the Baptist, preaching, the baptism of Jesus, Word of God
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Preaching Pentecost
More than 100,000 people have died in the US of COVID-19.
Nearly 360,000 people have died from the disease worldwide. Close to 6 million cases have been confirmed overall.
George Floyd died after saying, “I can’t breathe,” as a police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. Continue reading
Posted in current events, Holy Days, lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged COVID-19, George Floyd, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Minneapolis, Pentecost
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Light speaks
light whispers, flushed and fevered,
smouldering out of sight to
the point of conflagration. Continue reading
Posted in Holy Days, lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon, sermon preparation
Tagged Isaiah 49:6, light, Martin Luther King Jr, Year A Epiphany 2
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To move mountains
When she was old and fading –
her gray hair paling,
her skin thinning and softening –
my grandmother painted watercolours. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, sermon preparation, story
Tagged Bob Ross, dementia, faith, imagination, Luke 17:5, mustard seed, Year C Proper 22
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Fridays are for mortality
The choice of incarnation, an island carved out of immortality, implies that God is not immune to hard weeks. Continue reading
Posted in prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged birdsong, death, grief, immortality, Trinity Sunday
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over the water 