Where is your safe place? I mean that question seriously, so take a moment to think about it. Is it in your home, your hometown, in a favorite place of retreat, or maybe even right here at Trinity?
The prophet Elijah, running for his life from the enraged King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, sought safety in a cave … Read the rest
Continue reading "The Safety of Each Other" »
I heard through the grapevine that Rev. Karen preached on basketball last Sunday. And I was so glad, because I am utterly incapable of preaching on sports. It’s good to have a diversity of preachers who use different metaphors for our life in Christ, and—since basketball isn’t in my wheelhouse—I was grateful that Karen took one for the … Read the rest
Continue reading "Made for Freedom" »
Are you a sheep, listening for the voice of Jesus, or not? Are you a mother, or the child of a mother? On this Sunday, known as Good Shepherd Sunday, has the shepherd been good to you? Or perhaps more specific to the day, was your mother good? If you are a parent, is your own parenting good … Read the rest
Continue reading "Parenting, Imperfect" »
“Follow me.” Those are some rather stunning words to hear from Jesus. They’re also pretty familiar to us who go to church, so I want to invite you to listen to them anew, with the ears of your heart. And with the backstory in mind. “Follow me,” the resurrected one said.
Remember that, if you were Simon Peter, … Read the rest
Continue reading "The Invitation and the Imperative" »
Over the past month, I have attended or officiated four funerals. The deceased were people of different genders and ages and ethnicities. Two were people who had lived long full lives and passed away peacefully. Two were people whose lives were tragically cut short. There were in some cases ashes at the funerals, in some cases bodies; … Read the rest
Continue reading "Death and Our Song" »
On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment, Luke tells us. OK, but I’m not really sure I believe it. Just the day before, darkness had come over the whole land and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. That is to say, all the most reliable measures of life—the rotation of the earth … Read the rest
Continue reading "Wait with the Women" »
My older son Amos is kind of the peacemaker in the family. And if you know my smart-aleck younger son Aaron—which many of you do because he worked as your youth and family minister last year—you’d know why we need a peacemaker in the family! Amos is also a very good designer: he’s done a lot of the … Read the rest
Continue reading "You Do You" »
If ever there were an argument for the existence of the devil, today’s gospel is it. Notice that the Spirit of God led Jesus into the wilderness, but his tempter was the devil. Not the Holy Spirit, who filled him. Not God, who called him beloved. But the adversary, which is perhaps a better translation of the Greek … Read the rest
Continue reading "Temptation & Tyranny" »
A priest friend of mine told me a story about visiting a crematorium and peering through the peephole that allowed him to see a human body in the process of becoming ash. The body was luminous, he said. The process seemed to generate more of a glow than a conflagration: my friend described it as something akin … Read the rest
Continue reading "Fire and Ash/Fuego y Cenizas" »
I have a pastor friend who tells a story about leading a Bible study focused on what he called “the hard teachings of Jesus”. His group was discussing the story of the rich young ruler in Luke 18, who came asking Jesus about how to inherit eternal life. As we pastors tend to do, he was trying to … Read the rest
Continue reading "Power & Practice" »