Tag Archives: school shootings

We came here after Columbine

Let’s paint them
red, white, and blue
have some clergyman
compose a pledge
teach our children to recite it
hand on heart Continue reading

Posted in current events, gun violence, poetry | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Do not give your heart to the ashes

The landscape within which we live is littered with sin, from the scars we inflict upon the earth on up through the twisted veins of hearts that would burn down a church built in the image of God’s mercy. And it is impossible to stand here in an attitude of repentance tonight without acknowledging the complicity of our common life in the deaths of 17 students, children, at a high school in Florida this afternoon. Our participation in systems of sin, as its priests and as its victims, is as inevitable as the ice of winter. Continue reading

Posted in holy days, poetry, sermon, story | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Security alert

Count seconds between eruptions; dog howl fear strikes: cell phone lightning storm.

Posted in haiku, poetry | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Year A Proper 25: For the love of God

This post has been updated to reflect the version preached at the Church of the Epiphany, Euclid, Ohio, October 26th. Which commandment is the greatest? they asked. It is not, in fact, a difficult question. How else can you even … Continue reading

Posted in sermon | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Out of the mouths

“Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings…” – isn’t that what the Bible says? Yesterday, the NRA broke its quite understandable, even welcome, silence following the news out of Newtown last week. More guns, they suggested, would prevent more … Continue reading

Posted in other words | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment