The week before last I traveled to Denver Colorado to visit my father, who is very sick. More about that in a minute. But here’s the thing. In order to get there within our COVID bubble, my husband John and I drove the 1300 mile trip, out and back. Which meant that we crossed the Rocky Mountains in … Read the rest
Continue reading "Remembering the Future" »
Someone in this house has just recovered from a fever, has been lifted up, and is serving God. I don’t necessarily know who it is. Although… you may. The person recovered from the fever may even be you.
I know that it has been me. Lord knows I’ve had some debilitating fevers in my life: the fever of … Read the rest
Continue reading "Fever for Service" »
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" »
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" »
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" »
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" »