PREACHING TEXTS Acts 17:22-31 John 14:15-21 “Streetlights hide the glimmer of lesser stars” by Bryce J. Christensen Streetlights hide the glimmer of lesser stars. My weak telescope wobbles on … [Read more...]
“Attention is the beginning of devotion”
Text for Preaching "Gratitude" by Mary Oliver What did you notice? The dew-snail; the low-flying sparrow; the bat, on the wind, in the dark; big-chested geese, in the V of sleekest … [Read more...]
If I were a prophet…
Reflection on readings for 7 Pentecost (Revised Common Lectionary) YouTube video version follows the text When we have stories that feature John the Baptist like we do today, I repeatedly feel the … [Read more...]
“From Blossoms” to bread and wine – an Easter season reflection
Sermon Text: “From Blossoms” by Li-Young Lee https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43012/from-blossoms A video version of this sermon follows the text From blossoms - those wafer-thin pedals of … [Read more...]
An Overgrown Metaphor
My neighbor’s peonies blossomed long before mine and are bigger and more vibrant. What gives? Perhaps she is better than me, and that means her peonies are superior too. I mean, maybe she has done … [Read more...]
Evil Part Two: We don’t want to know what absence would feel like
Presence…God has to be present in order to influence change. If God were not present - absent - our experience of life would be radically different. Strangely, presence and absence can be equally … [Read more...]
Evil Part One: An Email thread post-Paris
This is a two-part rant that probably does not belong the week before Christmas, but neither do mass shootings or national political leaders vomiting their own ugliness on the rest of us belong in the … [Read more...]
We won’t encounter God in the past or the future
Summer arrived in mid-August. Perhaps it was the severity and length of last winter that so raised the expectations for summer that even the most sublime growing season could not fill the empty space … [Read more...]