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Category Archives: story
Why have we come here? Good Friday 2019
We come not to glory in his death, but out of fear of our own; and not only, nor even the death of our bodies, may they never endure such pain as his; but the death of our souls, the diminishing returns of our humanity, the erosion of love and the weary wearing away of compassion. On the cross, we see the destitution of our humanity, what it has come to, that we would sacrifice Christ to keep an unquiet peace, and pile on the death of God to weight the scales of injustice. We see where it could all end up, if we would prefer instruments of death to a way of life that makes us vulnerable to the demands of love and of mercy. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, sermon, story
Tagged angels, cross, Good Friday, hope, Jesus, reserved sacrament
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Palms and Passion: If these were silent
Holy Week sets a high bar for the followers of Christ. It asks whether we are willing to cry louder than the forces of sin and death, or whether we will rely on the stones, the cross, and the carillon to do it for us. Continue reading
Posted in story
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Citizens of heaven
Our citizenship is in heaven, declare the confident and the confused, the helpless and the hopeful, in every language invented under the Word of God; and the kingdom of heaven is at hand, says Jesus, where love is unwavering and indiscriminate; where death is defeated by the stubborn and resilient love of God, and the hope of heaven. Continue reading
Posted in current events, sermon, story
Tagged #christchurchmosqueshooting, Luke 13:34, Philippians 3:17-4:1, Year C Lent 2
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Revealed, by Angela D. Schaffner
Dr Schaffner’s psychological insights guide her readers through a journey into a Bible which does not lecture, chide, nor always even guide us so much as hold up a mirror to our own lives and relationships, inviting God into those reflections, and recognizing where God’s grace is already at work within us. Continue reading
Posted in book review, story
Tagged Angela D. Schaffner, Bible, psychology, Revealed, spiritual growth, Upper Room Books
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Falling
Precipitated by clever argument between gravity, ice, and the presumption of free will, bruised as creation, blue and green, concussed like goatskin stretched and pounding – the serpent, sliding snidely by, hisses something about pride, a fig leaf, and the … Continue reading
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
How cats answer prayers
I know that I have a weakness for whimsy, but there was something about that cat. She had a flash on her forehead that was the exact colour of the sand in the Jordan desert. 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
I heard it from an angel …
“I heard it from an angel, who heard it from a shepherd, who heard it from his sheep, who heard it from a donkey, who heard it from an ox that you had a baby tonight. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, story
Tagged Christmas Eve, Jesus, nativity pageant, pick-up pageant
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