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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
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Tag Archives: grief
The faithful shepherd
The Incarnation of Christ is the certainty that God has experienced and undergone all that drags us down into that valley. God is with us in its depths, with rod and staff, the faithful shepherd. Continue reading
Posted in homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged consolation, depression, Good Shepherd, grief, Psalm 23
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Wednesdays
Anniversaries are strange; the passage of time feels almost arbitrary. Ten years pass in a heartbeat, while an hour drags on for days. The anniversary of joy is marred by bad temper, while grief sneaks up on the calendar secretly, … Continue reading
Promise and practice
Promises require practice. It is our call and our promise to bring comfort to the broken-hearted, to make peace without sacrificing justice, or mercy, for peace cannot survive without them. … It is our call, and our promise, to resist evil, to proclaim the gospel by word and practice, to serve our neighbour as Christ himself, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being. And God promises us eternal life and an end to this separation, this wrenching of the spirit, not because we do these things, but because Christ does these things. Continue reading
Posted in current events, Holy Days, sermon
Tagged All Saints, baptism, beatitudes, COVID-19, election, grief, Matthew 5:1-12, Romans 8:38-39
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Living stones
Have you ever wandered through an old graveyard, reading the tombstones, wondering about the stories that they tell? Most give little away. Many speak names, dates, perhaps a close relationship or two. … Stones have little space for ambiguity or nuance. They are hard-nosed, they get straight to the point. They do not give up extra flourishes easily. “Well loved” is the kind of distillation of a life they can support. Names, dates, and one salient detail to sum up the measure of a man, or a mother. Continue reading
When we can’t see the end of the story
It can feel sometimes as though Jesus has withdrawn to the backwaters of Galilee, , and we do not know when we will see him again, nor whether he will come with whips and cords to clean out the temples of power, or even our own house; or whether he will come in chains, bowed down by the burdens of the principalities that still oppose the reign of God, its justice, its mercy, its peace; or whether he will come in glory, a light to shine the world toward salvation. Continue reading
Posted in Holy Days, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged gospel, grief, Luke 2:22-40, Nunc Dimittis, Simeon and Anna, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, waiting
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Underwater Jesus
Today is a heavy travel day here in the US. For many, a trip home brings feelings of relief and deep joy. For others, the air is electric with anxiety and dangers. For some, there is no going home, only the wilderness wandering within sight but not touch of the Promised Land. For not a few, the opening of the holiday season begins a pilgrimage to the abyss of grief. Continue reading
Posted in prayer, story
Tagged grief, Psalm 130:1, submerged statues, Thanksgiving, underwater Jesus
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All Souls
O eternal Lord God, who holdest all souls in life … (Book of Common Prayer, 202) Continue reading
Posted in Holy Days, spiritual autobiography
Tagged All Souls, ensoulment, grief, miscarriage, pregnancy loss
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Book Review: Dessert First – Preparing for Death while Savoring Life, by J. Dana Trent
So why does a book about death and grieving have such an odd title? Death is coming for each of us, so we might as well embrace our mortal life and enjoy it, grief and all, with all of its sweetness, tartness, and saltiness. Continue reading
Posted in book review
Tagged chaplaincy, death, funeral, grief, J. Dana Trent, life, memoir, ritual, theology
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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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