Tag Archives: gun violence

Preaching from the shadows

The sound of mallet on metal
wood and splintered flesh
ricochets around the city walls
shivering the fabric of
the crowd that clothes the alleyways
too often lost in thought and prayers
we fall without an echo
into the open grave Continue reading

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Capitalizing on panic

On the stories we tell ______________________ I saw a story in the Washington Post where a man named Kevin Thomas started making pop-up safe rooms for schools – kind of like the panic rooms that became a status symbol in … Continue reading

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Dwelling in glory

It takes time for the glory of God to sink in, to make our bones tingle with it, to make our hearts glad of it, and our spirits ready to respond in kind. Continue reading

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A psalm of lament

We turn to you, Compassionate One,
with your endless forbearance and infinite mercy, and pray that your patience will one day break;

because it seems some days that ours, our capacity for carnage, is everlasting. Continue reading

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Fire and water

The thing about pursuing an ethic of life, an ethic of love, is that it’s going to take a lot of work, a lot of humility, a lot of patience, and a lot of forgiveness. Continue reading

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Leading cause

I saw the eagle twice today; once above the middle school pinned out against the sky, spread upon the wind, a standard flying; then again a vision hunched over the cemetery, image of an angel, ugly crying. __________________________ In 2020, … Continue reading

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Come, let us argue it out

A sermon for October 30, nine days before the US midterm elections. The readings are for Year C Proper 26, Track 2, and include Isaiah 1:10-18 and Luke 19:1-10, the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus. ______________________________ What does repentance look … Continue reading

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Goose

I knew that just because I was inadequate to the task, that did not let me off the hook for doing what I could to try to relieve the suffering of another creature. Seeing his pain made me, in some obscure way, responsible for his healing. Continue reading

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It’s not nothing

What we did is not enough, but it was, I believe, inspired. What happened in DC this weekend is certainly not enough, nor is it yet even a done deal, but if it is a beginning, it is something. I remember learning about inertia in high school physics: a body at rest is inclined to continue to do nothing. A body that begins to move has the chance to collect momentum. Continue reading

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Not all at once

A sermon for Trinity Sunday “Jesus said to the disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12) Jesus knew that we cannot handle everything at once. Jesus, in his mercy, … Continue reading

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