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Tag Archives: hope
Signs
Though the sun fail, I will look for your light. The scarred and subtle moon draws tides high above our understanding of the depths of your mercy or our judgement. The fig tree, survivor, of your kindness growing peace offerings … Continue reading
Easter 2024
We believe, without the benefit of angels or appearances, that he rose from the dead, that the Roman Empire, greatest superpower in history, could do their worst to kill him, but that they could not destroy him.
We believe that in the midst of trouble, in the midst of unrest and unease, in the midst of our lives, there is no grave that can hold God hostage. We believe that Jesus is risen, and hope has been unleashed. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Easter, hope, Jesus, Mark 16:1-8, Resurrection
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Good Friday: the rock
These were his disciples, his followers, his confidantes; he had told them that this would happen, and that it wouldn’t be the end. But they had seen him helpless on the wooden gibbet; they had seen him mocked and pierced; they could not leave him defenseless against the elements or the wild beasts, be they animal or human. They rolled a stone across the entrance to the tomb. Continue reading
On the longest night
We are not alone. This is what our Communion means: we are here for ourselves, but also with and for one another; and Christ is here with and for us.
We are not alone. Joseph, our ancestor, dreamer and dutiful carer, bearer of the burdens of humanity and holiness, watches our dreams, and remembers, and reminds us, that the angels are attending us, too.
We are not alone. God is with us. May it be enough. Continue reading
Posted in advent meditations, homily
Tagged grief, hope, Incarnation, Jesus, Joseph, longest night, solstice
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Trinity Sunday, 2019
Within God’s perfect being is the reconciliation of relationship, the interplay of love, the communication of difference and solidarity. Those aspects of God promise that we are understood, that we are accepted in all of our difference, diversity, struggle, and longing; that within the heart of a God who knows all about it from experience, we are healed. Within the heart of a God who knows even brokenness, betrayal, the shadow sides of love, we are recognized, accepted, restored. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, sermon
Tagged baptism, connecting communities, hope, Trinity Sunday
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Why have we come here? Good Friday 2019
We come not to glory in his death, but out of fear of our own; and not only, nor even the death of our bodies, may they never endure such pain as his; but the death of our souls, the diminishing returns of our humanity, the erosion of love and the weary wearing away of compassion. On the cross, we see the destitution of our humanity, what it has come to, that we would sacrifice Christ to keep an unquiet peace, and pile on the death of God to weight the scales of injustice. We see where it could all end up, if we would prefer instruments of death to a way of life that makes us vulnerable to the demands of love and of mercy. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, sermon, story
Tagged angels, cross, Good Friday, hope, Jesus, reserved sacrament
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Friday
In God’s gospel truth, the day comes when nothing is to be done, except to shiver below the lowering sky, crouch within the trembling earth, wind down the body into the new-hewn tomb * * * The birds are the … Continue reading
Healing the holidays homily 2014 edition: holding out on hope
Six months before the Angel Gabriel to earth came down, as the story goes, he was hanging out in Jerusalem, visiting with Zechariah. Zechariah and Elizabeth were much older than Mary – which is not to say that the young … Continue reading
Posted in homily
Tagged Christ, Christmas, despondency, Elizabeth, God, hope, Incarnation, Zechariah
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Hoping and praying
Illuminated by hope, prayer chatters across the garden fence between earth and heaven, clouding the air with gossipy details… When hope has set beyond the horizon, prayer retreats into the house, slams the door, draws down the shades, unwilling to submit to … Continue reading
Posted in poetry
Tagged depression and spirituality, hamlet, heaven, hope, optimism, pessimism, prayer
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Year C Proper 27: No such thing as a stupid question?
You know how we always tell each other, and especially our children, that there’s no such thing as a stupid question? I have to think that the Sadducees were pushing the envelope on this one. It wasn’t because they were … Continue reading
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