This is one of the handy models Jesus offers in John’s Gospel for life in the resurrection. We call them the “I am” statements, and the Church usually reads through them during Eastertide. According to this “I am” narrative, Jesus loves his sheep, each and every one of us, unconditionally, no matter the cost to him, which was great, and no matter how we respond, which is often poorly.
Read MoreMark offers us two different possibilities on Easter. There is the plain sense of the account, in which a stone got moved, a guy gave a message, and the women left in fear, saying nothing to anyone. But there is also a miraculous way to see it. The angel is passing out Easter yard signs as we speak. No matter where you stand, there is a sign for you with a clear message: “He is risen.”
Read MorePalm Sunday is an opportunity to consider what kind of Holy Week we’re going to have. Will we imitate the disciples, ignoring Jesus’ warnings about what is to come, determined to set our minds on what is joyful, easy, comfortable? Will we dress up the journey to the cross with fancy clothes so as not to look too closely at it’s brutal nature? Or will we instead heed Mark’s warning and contemplate the stark reality of the crucifixion?
Read MoreI imagine that many of us are like those Greeks in Jerusalem. We are searching for truth, longing for a deeper spiritual life, and we have the means and ability to pursue it, even taking an exotic pilgrimage here and there. None of those are bad things, but we have to watch that they do not shut us off from the total transformation that Jesus is calling us toward, a transformation that requires us to stand before the cross, giving over whatever we are clinging to of our lives so that they will die with him.
Read MoreThere’s a lot to unpack in these few short weeks of wilderness wandering. We’ve got the manna from heaven, the moaning about wishing they were back in Egypt, and the never-ending line of legal cases brought before Moses. Thankfully, there is some true genius in the organizational structure of the Ten Commandments, which can help us understand what’s really going on here.
Read MoreIt’s not every day that you have a senior warden who is the music director of the Broadway hit “Godspell.” So of course we went to see it last week at the Argenta Community Theater. I’m grateful for the times when we are offered the whole story of Jesus at once. But I am just as grateful for the smaller pieces of the story that can feel more manageable week after week. What’s remarkable about them is that they seem to start out small, but if you look carefully, they contain much more of our salvation story than you might see at first glance.
Read MoreOn top of the Great Litany, we also have Mark’s brief and jarring rendering of the baptism of Jesus and his time in the wilderness. Unlike the lengthier, more nuanced tellings in the other Gospels, for Mark, Jesus’ baptism is a radical act, dramatic and earth-shattering. And his temptation in the wilderness is not a battle of wits and willpower with the devil, it’s an apocalyptic struggle that Jesus manages to survive. The passage describes a holy disruption in the world. If we were to lean into Mark’s vision, we might call the season of Lent a holy disruption in our life of faith.
Read MoreIt seems especially fitting that we are welcoming two babies into the Church this week through Baptism. I think they are lucky that their very first Lent will begin with a Valentine’s Day/Ash Wednesday mash up. Over the years, may that mash up teach them well - and remind us all - that the way of the cross is the way of love.
Read More“Wait for the Lord,” Isaiah councils. It is waiting that makes walking in the dark possible; our eyes need time to adjust to the illumination of stars. Jesus knew this need for waiting. In the midst of his rising fame and a chance to do the work of healing in the world, he took time to wait in a dark and wild place, away from the fires of the town and the safety of the city. It was into the dark that he went to pray, that most fundamental waiting before God. In prayer he oriented himself, remembering and accepting his dependence on his Father. In the dark he could look into the night and feel the comfort of the Love that made it all; the Love of which his own life was an expression.
Read MoreFrom the moment he enters the scene, Jesus is able to accomplish things that the scribes cannot. Jesus can silence and then completely overtake the evil spirit among them. The community’s worldview about power is immediately brought into question, and so is ours. Mark is telling us, in his opening chapter, that our assumptions about who holds authority in the world are sorely misguided.
Read MoreThe story of Jonah is meant to shine a light onto our own crankiness, our own hard-heartedness and narrow mindedness. This is the uncomfortable side of God’s grace. We can only side with God for so long before we realize that there are hatreds and biases in us that grace won’t tolerate.
Read MorePhilosophers, from Martin Heidegger to Jean-Louis Chretien, have understood the nature of language, or even being itself, as an answer to a call. And this reflects the biblical vision, where light and land, sky and sea, animals and plants are all called into being. The German Renaissance, theologian, Nicolas of Cusa said that: “To call is…to create, to share in being through communication is to be created.” There is something, then, that is created in me as I listen to birds in the pre-dawn dark or strain in a forest to sort through the varied voices, recognizing each as they sing. There is something in each of us that is being created when we wait patiently straining to make out the words of a child or join together in making music through singing. In each act of listening, small or large, we are answering a call; joining in the great communication that is at the heart of the world.
Read MoreThere is much that has been written about God. My shelves are full of books on theology and spirituality, prayer and ethics. And we have the bible, a book we rightly call “The Word of God,” that has over 700,000 individual words in the English translations. But from the beginning to the end, the language of God isn’t about words. The words are only circling a presence, the reality of God’s being with us. And it is this truth that comes to us most profoundly and fully in Jesus, God’s Son.
Read MoreMy friends, all the bells in heaven are ringing tonight, loud and clear. I think it’s safe to say that the angels are pretty high church. Maybe they had something to do with our sanctus bells reappearing just in time for Christmas, so we can join in their joyful noise. On this holy night, the angels are rejoicing once again at God’s magnificent plan to come to us as one of us, as Emmanuel, in order to draw us back to God.
Read MoreFrom Mary who is about to give birth to the Messiah, to Hannah, who received the gift of a child and in her joy gave that gift right back to God, to Deborah, who gives glory to God for every earthly victory, to Miriam, who in the utter chaos of the Exodus from Egypt, remembered to pack her tambourine so that if she made it out alive, God might be praised with singing. These women tell their own stories, and they tell the story.
Read MoreI’m grateful that Kate often preaches about our relationship with God as a love story, because it helped me hear this passage from Isaiah and understand that the agony of lost, distanced, or unrequited love is actually quite similar to the agony of not being able to sense the closeness of God. The longing is the same.
Read MoreTo Carol Lou’s wonderful family: We know that she worked at the church all the time, which can be frustrating for a family. And we know that she loved this place dearly. She watched over every penny and over every one of us, and her ministry changed this place for the better in more ways than we can count. She showed us the love of Jesus all the time around here. We thank you for sharing her with us for so many years. We offer our deepest thanks for the life of our Carol Lou, your Honey, and Christ’s own forever.
Read MoreJesus was the king returned, a reality we celebrate on this day, but his manner of life didn’t look much like that of a royal and the truth of his character was recognized by a very few. Jesus was a hidden king, a king who couldn’t be recognized by any of the normal signs of power. And yet his power was such that even death could not contain him, it was power that healed the sick and liberated the poor.
Read MoreI would like to propose that the Parable of the Talents, not unlike the Feeding of the 5,000 from five loaves of bread, taps into Kingdom Math. Spreading a finite amount of resources equitably across a community is an admirable notion. But an abundance that, once released and shared, will grow exponentially for everyone, well that’s Kingdom Math. The numbers may not add up, but God’s joy and truth are there.
Read MoreThere are seventeen errors in the order of service tonight, one for each year of Larry’s episcopacy. These deliberate errors are an homage to all of the accidental ones he has noticed here over the years as bishop, but was too gracious to point out.
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