Merry Christmas. On one level Christmas has been hidden in the Miller house this year. That is because we are moving and we expected to be in our new home before Christmas. So we packed … [Read more...]
Is this sermon about hope?
If I can be personal for a moment, I want to echo Wendell Berry’s poem about trees: “They are the advent they await.” Advent, an arrival or emergence, or as we say in church-speak, a … [Read more...]
Hope: Work For It
This is about hope. It is about hope in hard times when hope is hard work even for people who are by nature optimistic. It begins with a man and a story we might imagine has absolutely … [Read more...]
To My Grandson, a Note in a Bottle
Ptolemy World Map 1467 To my grandson. My Dearest Declan, Just this week for the first time, you escaped your play blanket on your own. Your mom and dad celebrated it by texting us all a … [Read more...]
Hope Rises
After thirty-plus years of preaching sermons flow naturally. The rhythm of my week more or less moves between the banks of sermon preparation and sermon delivery. Sunday after church, I pop the … [Read more...]
Bite into Hope
Oh, Anne Sexton, I do love you so: “…The trees poke out of sheets and each branch wears the sock of God. There is hope. There is hope everywhere. I bite it… There is hope…Today God gives … [Read more...]
The Morning After
It is the morning after. The sun came up gilding tomorrow with hope or lacing your heart with despair. But what is the difference between hope, wishful thinking, or conversely, despair? We need to … [Read more...]
The Bellybutton of the Galaxy
In the year 2002, a young blue star at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, made a sharp and unexpected turn. That star was among a group of stars moving so fast only something … [Read more...]
Out of the Saddle
I am out of the pulpit this week but an old friend asked me to send her a particular archive sermon, and so I am posting it. This has nothing to do with the lectionary readings for today and is out of … [Read more...]
A Future Not Our Own
A prayer attributed* to the late Roman Catholic archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, begins: It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our … [Read more...]