Tag Archives: healing

Take up your mat

Posted on May 26, 2019 by

Jesus does not help the man to get to the water. Jesus does not need to buy into the system that has kept this man down for thirty-eight years. Jesus is the living water, and he has power to heal the man, and he does that; but he does more. He tells the man to take up his mat, and walk home. Continue reading →

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Your faith

Posted on July 1, 2018 by

A sermon for hard times. The readings include Mark 5:21-43, in which a woman with a 12-year chronic condition sneaks up to the hem of Jesus robe to be healed, and a child is restored to her parents. There is … Continue reading →

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Facing God

Posted on August 21, 2016 by

All that the leader of the synagogue really needed to do, was to say, “Amen.” Continue reading →

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Pray

Posted on November 26, 2014 by

Pray, not for an end to grief; tears fall, the waters of a hard labour.

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PTSD Jesus

Posted on April 22, 2014 by

When he was raised, he bore the marks, which must mean he remembered. Then does each adulterous kiss make him wince at its betrayal; each flash of the needle, of the knife make him flinch? Does he recoil at the … Continue reading →

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Year A Advent 1: starting in the middle

Posted on November 30, 2013 by

In the middle of the story, in the middle of the day, when two women are in the middle of a studied silence over the millstone. They are not speaking. One of them is not speaking so hard, she disappears. … Continue reading →

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Religious rituals and summer Sunday attendance

Posted on June 2, 2013 by

Two days after my mother died, at half past five in the morning, I heard a strange noise outside my bedroom window, the window of the spare bedroom in my parent’s house. It was a rasping, grinding, rolling, grunting, sighing … Continue reading →

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Year B Proper 25: Beyond our ken

Posted on October 28, 2012 by

I grew up as the youngest in our family, which meant that I was also the smallest and often the slowest. On car trips and family outings, when my mother and my brother spotted interesting things out of the window, … Continue reading →

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Healthcare and healing

Posted on June 28, 2012 by

It is tempting, as many have observed, to link this Sunday’s readings to this Thursday’s Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. Politics from the pulpit are tricky. The need to be prophetic and the need to … Continue reading →

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Year B Epiphany 6: people first

Posted on February 10, 2012 by

I mentioned earlier this week the ecumenical lectionary group that I am blessed to attend each Tuesday morning, and my colleagues’ influence on my understanding of this Sunday’s readings. A few days later, I am still grappling with one of the effects of hearing, … Continue reading →

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