Tag Archives: Easter 2

Forgiving and retaining

Forgiveness tells the truth; Jesus still carries the marks of the nails in his hands and his feet, and the soldiers and the scoffers cannot enter the space of peace while they are still carrying their hammers. Continue reading

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For fear

In fact, Jesus himself may be our best guide and interpreter of the language of John’s Gospel that we find hard to hear and understand. Jesus, who taught his followers from the scriptures that he knew the best that the way of God is love; that the promises of God are faithful; that the mercy of God endures; that the justice of God does not set a sword between peoples but sacrifices itself for their reconciliation. Continue reading

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Reeking of resurrection

“Have you believed because you have seen me?” asked Jesus. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” And blessed, he might have added, are those who have the words, the wisdom, the love, and the compassion to show them how to believe in the overwhelming love of God in Christ. Continue reading

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Blessed

He breathed on them the scent of grave-clothes, myrrh, and aloes, the stench of forgiveness; I imagine that smells of olive oil pressed from the groves in the Garden of Gethsemane, drowning out with unction the fetor of betrayal and blood.  All day long they shed … Continue reading

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The midwives

Afterwards, whenthey found you again,did they use their ointments, spices, clothto bandage your wounds? Hairline scratches from the halo of thorns; how did you bear the grass beneath your feet? Midwives of the body,did they wipe your hands with aloe,wash … Continue reading

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Easter 2: What Thomas saw

A sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter in 2020, preached from home. Continue reading

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Reconciling love

Into this covenant Ann and Ben now come to be married. May their witness to the love and faithfulness of Christ warm our hearts, our may our joy at their union be reckoned to us as a reconciling righteousness. Amen. Continue reading

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Waking up to a resurrection revolution

Fifty years have passed, now, since King’s sermon at the Cathedral, and his subsequent assassination. If this death of his had been but sleep, as some of the poets say, and he were to awaken and return today, I wonder if he would be in any way disturbed by the kind of revolution whose results met Rip Van Winkle, or Thomas the apostle. Continue reading

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Inhabiting Thomas

Because you came back for Thomas I hope you may come back for me. Because you breathed peace upon Thomas I wonder if there is a peace for me. Because you let Thomas touch you I believe I will hold … Continue reading

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It is not enough

It is not enough for him to die. It is not enough for him to offer up his pain, to offer us his wincing scars: touch my hand; my open, scored side; trace the welts and weals of the thorns … Continue reading

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