St. Margaret’s Celebrates 50th Anniversary

We prize freedom, so it might not exactly be good news to have Paul tell the Corinthians that their bodies are not their own. He says instead that their bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit. So much of our spirituality seems to be outside our bodies, myst....(View...

Christian author Tony Campolo has a great book entitled, Adventures in Missing the Point. Today’s lesson from Mark is such a moment in scripture. The poor Pharisees begin to pontificate upon the law and the rules and what is “right.” On the o....(View this reading and...

One of the most significant concerns I have about Christianity is the way we have domesticated Jesus. In our story from Mark, the Pharisees are incredulous that Jesus eats with outcasts and sinners. Jesus is explicit: These people are who he came to eat with, and this...

Why do we always think that building a wall is a way to make peace? Walls to keep things out (or in) are a band-aid solution, at best. Walls do nothing to address real issues of how we live together, no matter where in the world we live.The image of walls is a...

Behind Jesus’ miracles and ministry is a habit that is easy for us to miss. He always had a rhythm to his life—a balance between extreme communal work and time alone. I admit that I struggle with following Jesus’ rhythm of intense work and intentional....(View this...

Fame spread throughout the land regarding Jesus. And yet, popularity was not at all what he had come to attain or seek. Jesus was continually saying, “This is not about me—this is about the kingdom of heaven and my Father who sent me. See that in me.” Jesus sought out...

When the world seems out of control, words like the ones from our reading in Isaiah soothe me. At one time or another, all of us get a little carried away with our importance—surely with God, we must know just how important we are, how profoundly loved we are....

Two distinct theologies have developed around baptism. One, I call magic, and the other, I call decision. Magic requires no real change. Magic is terrible theology. God loves the unbaptized person—and indeed everyone, entirely, now, already—no matter what we do....

Julia Chester Emery served as the national secretary of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Board of Missions for forty years, from 1876 to 1916. For the Episcopal Church, perhaps her most significant and longest-lasting legacy is the United Thank Offering. The ....(View...

Harriet Bedell was an Episcopal deaconess, first working with the Cheyenne people in Oklahoma. Later, she continued her work with indigenous people in Alaska, where she started a school in the small village of Tanana, a town I was blessed to visit several years ago....