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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
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Tag Archives: Jesus
Hungry for God
If we could turn stones into bread to feed the food insecure, the child whose father goes without to turn away her crying hunger, the mother who works night and day to provide for them; if we could turn beach sand into bread rolls, wouldn’t we do it? Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged devil, Jesus, Lent, Luke 4:1-13, Psalm 91:11-12, temptations
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Bright cloud
There are those bright clouds in which we recognize God’s presence already among us, working in us and through us as we struggle to do the right thing, even when the way is obscure and foggy, even when we are terrified, even when we confronted with anger, grief, failure. The way of the cross is not an easy road, but it does lead to deliverance, to freedom from unclean spirits, eventually to resurrection. Continue reading
Posted in current events, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged grief, Jesus, justice, LGBTQ, Transfiguration, UMC
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How to love your enemies
Love your enemies, says Jesus. Let God take your anger and turn it into something beyond your imagining – just as Jesus turned the horror, the terror, the death of the cross into the astonishment of the Resurrection. Continue reading
Mere mortals
Consider the vision of God’s kingdom that Jesus offers: a world in which the poor have power; where the bereft are comforted. Where profits are harvested as food for the hungry, with ploughshares beaten out of pistols. Where the name Pulse has not been perverted to echo with death and anger, but resumes its resonance of life, and love. Where Aurora means the halo of light around the moon, giving glory to God with all the heavenly bodies, and we no longer ask, do you mean the one in Colorado, or the one in Illinois? Where the south side of Chicago is simply the sunny side of the street. Where the Tree of Life grows green in the Garden of Eden. A kingdom where the name Parkland conjures up, not the valley of the shadow of death, but a quiet place, green pastures beside still waters. Continue reading
Posted in gun violence, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged #Parkland, a year C Epiphany 6, Aurora, gun violence, Jeremiah, Jesus, kingdom of God, Pulse, Tree of Life
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What the world needs now
“Don’t be afraid,” says Jesus, “From now on you will be catching people.” Simon, James, and John looked at the great crowd gathered on the sea shore to hear Jesus, to see Jesus, to find Jesus. And they put down their nets, and followed Jesus into the country, into the crowd, who needed more than anything to know the presence of the living God among them. Continue reading
Water, wine, and justice like an ever-flowing stream
On sabbatical, I visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I can’t begin to describe briefly the impact of walking that history of inhumanity and human dignity set up in opposition to one another, the weight of those ceilings, each one a century, and the heaviness of your footsteps as you climb closer to our own day of reckoning. Continue reading
I heard it from an angel …
“I heard it from an angel, who heard it from a shepherd, who heard it from his sheep, who heard it from a donkey, who heard it from an ox that you had a baby tonight. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, story
Tagged Christmas Eve, Jesus, nativity pageant, pick-up pageant
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Mary’s first Christmas
The first Christmas after he died, she spent the dawn remembering that night in Bethlehem, and the stars, and the straw. Continue reading
Posted in advent meditations, story
Tagged Blue Christmas, Christmas, grief, Jesus, Mary, Resurrection
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Good news, you brood of vipers!
“If you have two coats, give one to someone who has been left out in the cold,” offers John. It is almost literally the least we could do. Continue reading
Posted in sermon
Tagged Advent, armistice, Jesus, John the Baptist, salvation, Silent Night
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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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