Yet somewhere in the dark, in this world in which it seems sometimes that no one cares we are lost there is no meaning anymore, no longer any ground for hope still, there is a house where someone is bending down to anoint another person’s feet. The gesture is an act of blessing, an anointing for burial,…
So when we hear Jesus say, “Unless you repent, you will perish,” many of us probably wince and pull back. We don’t want to be party to a religious faith that seems to promote self-righteousness, on the one hand, or abject fear, on the other. We don’t want to be like that imagined street preacher who has an angry, judging…
Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent, February 24, 2013. Delivered by the Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, Grace St. Paul's Church, Tucson, Arizona. Listen to an audio recording. Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Now I don’t have a problem with being clear about the challenges of life, but isn’t it true that something in us hungers for more than a life filled with complaints and regret? Isn’t it true that we want more out of life - and to give more to life - than to find ourselves perpetually hemmed in by frustration…
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth... No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close…
We gather this morning with shocked and troubled hearts as we absorb news of the massacre in Connecticut. Here in this sacred space I invite you to join me in a moment of silence as we lift up before God those who perished in the gunfire and those who awoke in Newtown this morning deeply grieving, traumatized, angry, or afraid.
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Whoa these are not the consoling words that we want to hear when we come to church! Jesus’ predictions of war and natural disaster resonate with what may already be on our minds this morning, we who are following the news of the accelerating conflict in the Middle East, with rockets striking the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem,…
It’s a wonderful mythic story, but it’s been troublesome, too, and over the years progressive Christians have felt a need to clarify or correct its interpretation. For starters, the story could imply that because woman was made from a man’s rib, women by nature are derivative of men, that by nature we are secondary and subordinate. This inte
I mention this today because our Gospel is all about that flow. The Pharisees and scribes seem to be focused only on the outside, on what is external: on washing their hands before they eat, on washing the produce that they buy in the marketplace, on washing the cups and pots that they use when preparing their food. Let me…
The God I meet in Jesus, the God I meet in every Eucharist, is a God who seeks intimacy with us, a God who longs to draw close. So many of us are filled with self-doubt. So many of us speak harshly to ourselves, or find constant fault with ourselves. What a contradiction it is to that inner voice of…
