The evidence points to the reality that the God we worship is a living God. Which means that God must still be on the move. The cross is empty, the tomb is empty, and now strangely, even our churches are empty (Pulpit Fiction). We thought perhaps that we had God nicely contained here in beautiful buildings and our liturgies and in the breaking of the Communion bread. But even our most sacred rituals cannot contain a living God.
Read MoreLast week, Kate showed us that this year, we have more in common with the disciples after the resurrection than ever before. This is true in terms of our circumstances: huddled together in houses, unsure of our safety. But it’s also true in terms of our responsibility towards the Gospel. Just like us, the disciples knew that how the story of the resurrection gets told matters. And nowhere do we see intentionality in storytelling, in every word and theme, more than in the writings from the Johannine community, from whom we get today’s gospel passage.
Read MoreIf it’s true that we find ourselves closer to the experience of that first Easter morning, what if we also find ourselves closer to the whole gospel story, not just to the joyful ending but to the entire story of Jesus? What if we could understand the good news of Christ in a new way, given our present circumstances? It seems to me that if we look around right now, the ancient Christian story is unfolding right before our very eyes, here and now, in real time. And we are all included in it.
Read MoreHumility can be our balm, our way into the ground where the seeds of our flourishing can be planted and spring forth with radiant beauty and life. But for that ground to be alive, to give us the renewal we need for resurrection, we must enter into death and surrender even of our hope to God.
Read MoreThe miracle in this story is not God’s power to make the dry bones live again, but God’s capacity to love the dry bones to begin with. Where Ezekiel saw only empty, ugly, dry bones, God saw the fundamentals of human life. This is a basic fact about our God: where we see only death, God always offers life.
Read MoreMost of us wouldn’t think of the 23rd Psalm as an apocalyptic passage. It is our most familiar psalm, one of the most known and cherished parts of scripture, and for good reason. Its words are deeply comforting, its images deep and life giving. But at the Psalm’s heart is a message meant to bring perspective, God’s revelation, to a people in crisis. This ancient song is meant to bring a message so profound and powerful that when fully encountered it will change the very way we live.
Read MoreWe have been training for this moment spiritually for a long time, and we are ready for it. It might not feel like we are, with so much fear going around, but it’s true. All the times we’ve been in church before, all the times we’ve read the scriptures, all the times we’ve said our prayers, we have been preparing for this moment.
Read MoreTruly, we are all Nicodemus, peering out into the night, hoping against hope for a message of comfort and reassurance from our God. Faithful as ever, God sends us the same message that Nicodemus and Moses and all of our ancestors have heard: the source of our fear will be the source of our grace, grace in the night.
Read MoreAs we begin our Lenten journey, consider the power of the word “no” for Christian discipleship. Because of your faith, what do you need to say no to?
Read MoreFog, these days, comes with a warning on our phones; a weather advisory to slow down. A foggy mind, cloudy thinking, caught in a haze--the metaphors of our culture reflect a negative stance toward life in the clouds. We love to be able to see what’s ahead and around us. But our scriptures are full of places where it is in the fog that faith is found, it is in the fog that we encounter the divine.
Read MoreIt turns out that some dusty old verses in scripture can be planted in us after all, and grow into the medicine we need.
Read MoreI believe that there are critical moments in the life of a community in which a look back at the people and patterns and systems of the past is a valuable spiritual practice. In fact, I think Jesus himself encouraged theological reflection on history.
Read MoreIf, by chance, you think that you are insufficient for such spiritual heights, just remember that Luke highlighted a random guy off the street and an old widow in the temple as our inspiration. Each of us can be an Anna or a Simeon, ready to see the savior and learning to trust that the consolation of the world will come.
Read MoreIn our Gospel, the word Jesus uses for repent means something very different from simply confessing sins and feeling sorry for them. Repent in the Greek of the New Testament is the word metanoia, which translates more literally to “change your mind,” “renew your mind,” “take on a different way of thinking.” This is what Jesus means when he calls on us to repent.
Read More“Have you ever been Baptized?” the preacher asked. “What’s that?” he murmured. “If I Baptize you,” the preacher said, “you’ll be able to go to the Kingdom of Christ. You’ll be washed in the river of suffering, son, and you’ll go by the deep river of life. Do you want that?” “Yes,” the child said, and thought, I won’t go back to the apartment then, I’ll go under the river. “You won’t be the same again,” the preacher said. “You’ll count.”
Read MoreOur Gospel reading this morning, the poetic prologue to John’s gospel, tells us that creation itself is woven from the Word of God, this Word that is Christ and was with God from the beginning—" All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” Christ, this light, was meant to be seen in warblers, the truth of God’s love was to be heard in the laughter of children or witnessed in the aroma of a forest after a rain. Creation, from the beginning, spoke of God because it was made through the Word of God and breathed from His life and echoed His light. Christ was the language in which the book of creation was written.
Read MoreIf, by chance, you have taken any wrong turns in life, or failed to let other drivers into your lane, or ended up in construction zones far away from your intended destination, hear the angels’ message to fear not. Remember that God is in the business of sending signs to reassure us of God’s favor.
Read MoreThose in power like Ahaz, those in power like so many of us, can pretend that God is big and distant because we like to take care of things ourselves. We want a God too big for our lives so that we can be our own gods in all the details and decisions of our existence. But those like Joseph and Mary, the powerless peasants waiting in expectation for God to redeem Israel, see by the light of the Spirit’s witness that God is here among us. They have felt the presence of God and recognized the truth that God has never been far. As the theologian Stanley Hauerwas writes: “God does not need to intervene in creation, because God has never been absent from creation.”
Read MoreThis time of year, we always seem to find ourselves in a confused world of ominous headlines and twinkling Christmas lights. The world looks like a six. But we are once again invited to throw our faith into a world of nines, into a world where God became flesh to heal it all.
Read MoreEvery year I strive to be more prepared for the season of preparation. But life gets hectic, and I get distracted, and so every year, on the second Sunday of Advent, there’s John the Baptist, the voice crying out in the wilderness saying, “Hannah! You’re breaking the ornaments!”
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