Sunday, November 29, 2020
Here we are, crossing the threshold of Advent—a season designated for holy waiting. We mark the time until Jesus’ birth with study, prayer, fasting, and acts of charity. We keep awake, trimming the wicks in our lamps and making sure to bring extra oil. ….(View...
Saturday, November 28, 2020
As we slide toward Advent, the lectionary throws us into the midst of the apocalyptic. Much like our time in Revelation earlier this month, the imagery heralding the Coming of the Lord can be both frightening and strange. In our reading from Zechariah, we...
Friday, November 27, 2020
Frank Wade, a professor of preaching and an Episcopal priest, encourages his students to be as creative as possible in imagining the characters that we don’t get to hear in the Bible. What if there was a girl in another village who couldn’t quite manage the “yes” that...
Thursday, November 26, 2020
From the Archives: February 24, 1956The thought this week has been to develop the idea that true prayer starts with, and is always, the sense of being in God’s presence. First, we think about God. We think only of the Being of God. We quie….(View this reading...
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Before I ever knew what a sycamore tree looked like, I could tell you that a wee little man climbed one and ended up having dinner with Jesus. You may have learned the story in the same song I did. And now, perhaps the song is stuck in your head as well!...
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
You are God’s temple. Read the words again—allow them to wash over you and soak into every fiber of your being. What do you feel? Relief? Disbelief? Pride? Other feelings—maybe several? Take a long, good look at yourself. Admire God’s Holy Spirit dw….(View this...
Monday, November 23, 2020
When the psalmist puts Israel’s sin in such explicit terms, it seems pretty silly that people would exchange their relationship with God to worship a baby bull. Usually when we find ourselves worshiping false idols, exchanging our own glory isn’t so obvious....
Sunday, November 22, 2020
When it comes down to it, none of us can be reduced to being either a sheep or a goat, though it sure is tempting to try. I believe that Jesus searches out every last sheep in each of our lives and communities, searching for us like lost coins, lighting...
Saturday, November 21, 2020
We’ve likely all heard awful sermons on this parable—and some of them were preached by me. These sermons share a complete failure to show any charity toward the Pharisee and an extreme lifting up of humility, almost to the point of idolatry. Humility is….(View...
Friday, November 20, 2020
Everything I know about metallurgy was taught to me during Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood or some similar children’s show. The image that is clear in my mind is of a black iron cup full of boiling metal that looked like lava being poured from one container into another...
