I felt like Moses in today's reading from Deuteronomy, who wanted so much to pass along the deepest wisdom he knew and the most likely path to joy: to love God with our whole heart and mind and strength. As Moses said, "Put these words of mine in your heart and soul Teach them to your children, talking about them…
What interests me most in the scene we just heard is imagining what the beloved disciple experienced on that Easter morning. Of course, other characters also appear in the story of the empty tomb - Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter - but it is the beloved disciple who most attracts my attention. That is lucky for me, I guess, because…
James Hansen, our leading climatologist, just issued what may be the most important scientific assessment of global warming in years. He argues that significant greenhouse gas reductions must be made immediately “if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted.”
Billy Graham tells a wonderful story about belief. One morning an acrobat begins pushing a wheelbarrow across a tightrope suspended high above Niagara Falls. When he reaches the other side, he turns around and carefully pushes the wheelbarrow back along the wire, as a crowd gathers to watch in amazement. Then the acrobat tak
We hear this story every year on Monday of Holy Week, and I'd like to wonder with you about this gesture of Mary's. What might it mean? Because John's Gospel reads rather like a poem, every word and image has multiple meanings, not just one, so we can ponder a number of possibilities.
One mean
What do you imagine that Jesus was feeling? Was he caught up in the excitement and commotion? Was he smiling? I can imagine him drinking in these moments of praise and support, and his quiet joy when he looked into the crowds and spotted some of the people he had healed - maybe the man who had been born blind,…
"One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. "
-John 9:25
We've just heard one of the seven miracle stories recorded in John's Gospel. Jesus turns water into wine, he stills
Yet when we walked into church this morning, we stepped into a different space. Here on our last, climactic Sunday of the Epiphany season, God summons us away from the clamor and commotion of our fast-paced and sometimes driven lives, and sends us up the mountain to pray, as Moses did, as Elijah did, and as Jesus did, as well.…
There is so much I want God to wash away - so much that my hands, and all human hands, have dirtied and spoiled, so many words I've spoken, that we've all spoken, that have been sour in our mouths as we said them; so many thoughts I've had, that we've all had, that have smudged and tarnished the people…
“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way." So begins Matthew's version of the Christmas story, a story that in his telling gives Joseph quite a significant role to play. Maybe it's because I'm a woman and a mother, but it's Mary - not Joseph - that I tend to think about at Christmas, Mary who…
