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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
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Tag Archives: God
What is the church for?
How do we let people know that we are here for them? Not, as James said a couple of weeks ago, only if they are properly turned out and prompt in their arrival, if they know their way around the service, and sing in tune. I love that in my twelve years with you, there have always been people who come late, leave early, get up and stretch mid-service, act like human beings in the middle of divine worship. Just as Jesus became human with us. And that matters, so much, that we can be human in church, drawn toward the one in whose image we all share. How else do we let people know that we are here if they are sick, if they are suffering, if they are singing, if they are sighing, that they can be human here? Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged Christianity, church, faith, God, human, James 5:13-20, Jesus, worship, Year B Proper 21
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Quick, quick, slow
A little Lenten story When my children were small, I didn’t forget their names – how could I? – yet as often as not my tongue would take two or three wrong turnings on its way to the beloved standing … Continue reading
Ash Wednesday
Lent is a time, if nowhen else is, not to perform piety, but to practice humility; not to perform beneficence, but to practice generosity; not to perform mourning but to practice grief, for all that is done that should have been left undone; for all that should have been done that has been left undone; with tears and trembling, and the sure and certain knowledge that God, who is compassion and mercy, sees us. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, sermon
Tagged Ash Wednesday, ashes, dust, God, Lent, Matthew 6:1-6 16-12, mercy, repentance
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Kittens
There is a lot going on in the world, in the country, in our communities and families.
Sometimes, the best antidote to overwhelm is to give in to [ahem – kittens] the overwhelming, particular, peculiar love of God. Continue reading
TLK W GOD
It is our calling to cry out the goodness of God in Christ; not as a way of advertising our own services, but for the sake of the gospel itself, because we know that life is better with God, that we are comforted by the Sacraments of Christ, and the communion of saints. Continue reading
Posted in advent meditations, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Advent, bumper sticker, Christmas, Eva ngelism, God, Jesus, Year C Advent 2
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Be still and know: meditation on a breathing meditation
After each breath is complete, there is a pause, in which nothing at all happens. In that pause, there is stillness, silence, a full and sufficient absence. Continue reading
Posted in book review, meditation, poetry, prayer
Tagged #OneBreathBook, absence, breath, childbirth, God, J. Dana Trent, meditation
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Sharkbait
If we give up on Nineveh, we run the risk that instead of becoming fishers of men, we become like Jonah, in need of a fishing vessel to rescue us from the deep water we get ourselves into when we turn our backs on the grace and mercy that God has for all that God has made. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged discipleship, fishers of men, forgiveness, God, Jonah, Nineveh, politics, repentance
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Discernment
I asked God a hundred times or so to show me the way. Trying to wrestle guidance from the silence was like wringing a dry towel in the desert and hoping for water to soothe a burning tongue. Today, whether … Continue reading
The Shepherd King
The judgement that Jesus describes is the judgement that the prophet Ezekiel promises to the sheep of God’s hand. “I will feed them with justice,” says the Lord.
And what is the justice with which they are fed? Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged Christ the King, Ezekiel 34:11-24, God, judgement, justice, Matthew 25:31-46, mercy, mission, shepherd
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Revolution
Two centuries after the Declaration of Independence, and two millennia after the birth, death, and resurrection of the Christ, we are still prone to fall back on familiar figures of authority, and to forget the revolutionary promises of the gospel. Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged emancipation, God, gospel, Magnificat, parable, parable of the talents, revolution
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