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A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
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Tag Archives: Jesus
Love builds up
Knowledge is like a little bird making itself look large by fluffing up its feathers; it warms the bird, it helps the bird, it protects the bird at times; it is all for the bird’s own good.
Love is like the bird that builds a nest, patiently searching for just the right materials to stop the draught and secure the foundation for its family, who stocks it with food when the eggs are incubating, who creates the conditions for new life to flourish. Love is the bird who comes back and starts again when it all goes wrong because of the storms or the predators or the sadness of the world. Love builds up. Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged 1 Corinthians 8:1-13, authority, Jesus, love, Mark 1:21-28, Year B Epiphany 4
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Cast out
Demons shake and scream; for God alone my soul in silence waits. Something deep within mutters “unclean”; for God alone my soul in silence waits. Power demands authority, but humility whispers and spirits writhe. For God alone my soul in … Continue reading
Fisher
You flee again to Galilee, another Herod, another threat, kings and prophets always at odds and you, raised with the memory of blood and fire, fishing for another way, the kingdom of God, as it were, silver-scaled and just, within … Continue reading
Two or three
Two or three: Jesus why are you afraid to be too alone with me? ______________ #preparingforSundaywithpoetry. This Sunday’s Gospel is full of numbers – no, not of numbers, of people, unalone. Matthew 18:15-20
… But do not be afraid
A sermon for the first week of the Chautauqua Institution season, 2023, Year A Proper 7 _____________ There’s nothing like starting in the middle. With no context, no backstory to soften the blow, we arrive for a week at Chautauqua … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged family, family divisions, Jesus, Matthew 10:23-39, sparrow, Year A Proper 7
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Mercy
Learn what this means, he says: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. But mercy, pitiless in its command, requires the sacrifice of satisfaction, Schadenfreude, vengeance. Righteous indignation; the bitter little consolations that coddle a sore, soured, soul. It makes one wonder, honestly, if he truly, truly understands the meaning of either Word. … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged Hosea 6:6, Jesus, Matthew 9:9-13, mercy, sacrifice, Year A Proper 5
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Unhinged
I am a gate, I swing this way and that, inviting you to step into my dance, leading with the song you have heard before: creak and sigh of hungry humanity herded like sheep by fear and faith by turns. … Continue reading
Easter 2023: it’s (still) a love story
It isn’t like any love story we could conjure up, because it is true, a true story: Jesus lived among us, the Son of God was crucified, descended to the dead, and on the third day rose again, and he could not wait to greet his beloved disciples on the road, could not wait to see their shining, astonished faces; he could not wait to love them back. Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, lectionary reflection, sermon, story
Tagged Easter, Jesus, love story, Resurrection
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Maundy Thursday message
This, for me, was the tragedy of Judas: that he couldn’t see how much God loved him, even when God was right in front of him, washing his feet. Continue reading
Triduum
While the dough was doing its thing, I went out to the forge, made one more cross out of gun barrels. Continue reading
Posted in gun violence, holy days
Tagged #GunstoGardens, #GunstoGrace, bread, Good Friday, Jesus, Maundy Thursday, school schooting, way of the cross
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over the water 