“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I have perplexity in my mind, and grief in my heart, day after day?”
How long indeed? 100-plus days since shelter at home, and I’m taking this psalm rather personally. The unknowable “how long-ness” of our pandemic … Read the rest
Continue reading "Transform the Story" »
Where do we find God? Indeed, where do we even go looking for God? Especially when the obvious places, like our lovely Cathedral, are closed to us? That’s a big loss, and we feel it every day. As your pastor, the only advice I can offer you is this: feel all the feels. It’s OK to grieve; grief … Read the rest
Continue reading "Holy Household" »
Among my earliest childhood memories is of the time I almost drowned, when I was about three. I was playing on the beach with my parents, when suddenly a sneaker wave pulled me into the foamy surf, tumbled me around, and then pushed me downwards where responsible adults couldn’t see me. I struggled against the power of the … Read the rest
Continue reading "Breath of Power" »
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” It’s a good question, no? The kind of clarity-seeking question we have come to expect of Thomas the doubter, who wanted to see it before he believed it. And from our vantage point in Santa Clara County during this … Read the rest
Continue reading "Chosen for the Way" »
“He had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” I remember the first time I read that phrase, and it came to me with a shock of recognition. For Jesus had indeed been made known to me in the breaking of the bread. My adult priesthood has been intimately shaped by my youthful Christian … Read the rest
Continue reading "The Way to the Bread/El Camino hacia el Pan" »
They didn’t train us for this in seminary. And by this, I don’t mean pastoring through a global pandemic, or becoming video producers or online educators. Although most of us didn’t know much about that before the COVID-19 quarantine, so we’re all learning on the job, no?
No nos entrenaron para esto en el seminario. Y no … Read the rest
Continue reading "Holy Fracture/Santo Fracaso" »
“Unbind him, and let him go,” said Jesus to Lazarus who had just emerged from the tomb. That’s from the 11th chapter of John’s Gospel. And then from the 20th chapter: “Do not hold on to me” said Jesus to Mary Magdalene when he himself had emerged from the tomb. While our Christian scriptures insist—from beginning … Read the rest
Continue reading "Once, and for All" »
“Rabbi, who sinned, that we are all in quarantine?” The Chinese? The Europeans? Fox News?
We mostly don’t ask that kind of question anymore, at least not of our religious leaders. Exactly nobody has asked me whose sin caused the Novel Corona Virus epidemic, although a few people have asked me if we are living in the end … Read the rest
Continue reading "What's the Question?" »
Did you know that the two most common stress dreams for North Americans are showing up unprepared for the test, and being naked in public? I bet just my mention of those dreams makes a few of us feel anxious, because they are such unsettling experiences. I haven’t had a stress dream for a while, because the last … Read the rest
Continue reading "Pass/Fail" »
I can still remember the first time somebody gave me salted fruit. I was visiting a pineapple plantation in Nicaragua, and the grower cut a fresh ripe pineapple in the field. He sliced it into these bright tantalizing spears, and my mouth was watering for the tang. I was just about to take the slice from his hand … Read the rest
Continue reading "The Law and the Little" »