Until last year, my family owned a primitive cabin in the Redwoods near the Russian River. The site was green and romantic and beautiful, but the cabin was not an easy place to maintain. The overstory cast a deep shade, and moisture so permeated the ecosystem such that everything seemed to compost overnight. Including nylon mesh, which I … Read the rest
Continue reading "A Wilderness of Discomfort" »
“You do not know when the time will come.” Truer words have never been said on the first Sunday of Advent, no? Here we find ourselves, waiting for so many things whose arrival date is uncertain. The peaceful transition of presidential power, for example, or the widespread availability of a good vaccine for COVID-19. We’re waiting for businesses … Read the rest
Continue reading "The Alarm of Advent" »
Beloved, we are God’s children right now—nothing is more true than that—but what we will be has not yet been revealed. I find so much comfort in that statement from the First Letter of John, but also plenty of challenge. How will the witness of my life be revealed when generations to come look back on my … Read the rest
Continue reading "Saints, Revealed" »
Not every gathering is the right one to attend, and we can’t always come just as we are. I’ll confess that this is a challenging idea for me, being the extravert that I am. I tend to look upon every group as another chance to meet more of God’s beloved people and to celebrate the big, joyous, diverse … Read the rest
Continue reading "Party Dressed" »
“A new creation is everything!” I just love that joyful exclamation from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. He’s been meditating on the cross of Christ: symbol of God’s great victory over death, absolutely. But in Paul’s time, the cross was not used for jewelry, and nobody would ever have forgotten that it was also an … Read the rest
Continue reading "Imagining Death into Life" »
Do you ever feel like the Bible is reading you? Feel like it is shining a light into the far recesses of your soul and asking you to look more closely at yourself? The beautiful parts as well as the ones we’d prefer not to see? “How often should I forgive?” asked Peter. I’ve asked that question of … Read the rest
Continue reading "Crisis of Forgiveness" »
Today’s Gospel lesson is sandwiched between two other teachings about the integrity of the community of Jesus followers. Matthew 18:10-14 is the Parable of the Lost Sheep—the one in one hundred who goes astray—and Jesus teaches that “it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.” Then in Matthew … Read the rest
Continue reading "Better Together" »
A little less than a year ago, I was driving from my previous Trinity Cathedral in Portland Oregon to my current Trinity Cathedral to be with you. Because I was travelling with my son Aaron—you’ll see him in our upcoming children’s moment—we stopped to visit Crater Lake and some of the other magnificent landscapes along the way. As … Read the rest
Continue reading "The View from the Mountain" »
“Lord, teach us to pray,” the disciples asked of Jesus, according to Luke’s Gospel. And in response, Jesus gave them what we now know as the Lord’s Prayer, perhaps the most beloved and enduring prayer in our tradition. From foxholes to hospitals to bedtime rituals to Episcopal liturgies of every kind, we pray and we sing “thy kingdom … Read the rest
Continue reading "Barefoot Conquerors" »
Our collect appointed for this Sunday—listen, and you’ll hear it later in the service—prays for God to give us knowledge and understanding about what things we ought to do. That’s a very good prayer for what we Christians sometimes call discernment. That is, our practices for choosing the right course of action, as followers of Jesus.
But honestly, … Read the rest
Continue reading "Discerned Profligacy" »