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…
"Advent" means "coming" or "arrival," and during these four weeks that lead up to Christmas we prepare for the first coming of Christ, when God became incarnate in Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. Advent has the makings of a joyful season. We look forward to Christmas, to holiday parties and festive decorations. We anticipate th
For those of us who like a good story, today’s a good day, because today we have a pair of fine stories to consider – the story of Elisha healing Naaman the leper, which is found in the Second Book of Kings, and the story (from the Gospel of Luke) of Jesus healing ten lepers and receiving a word of…
That’s how he puts it, right off the bat. “I have come to start a fire, and how I wish it were kindled!” Jesus comes with fire that traditional biblical image of judgment and purification. “I have come to change everything,” Jesus says. “I have come” and now I’m quoting a contemporary rend
That's how he puts it, right off the bat. "I have come to start a fire, and how I wish it were kindled, how I wish it were blazing right now!" Jesus comes with fire - that traditional biblical image of judgment and purification. "I have come to change everything," Jesus says to us this morning
I would like to say a few words about
freedom, because freedom is in the air. For one thing, it is summer,
when many of us go off on some sort of vacation and are free of our
daily schedules and routine. Freedom will be the national focus in a
few days when we celebrate the…
Last week Ton Whiteside commented that worshipping in the Parish Hall would be a bit like going to church camp, and I think he's right. I never went to church camp, but I did go to regular camp, and I see some resemblances to what we're doing here. We don't have a campfire, but in a while we will gather…
Today's Gospel passage is a good text for an in-between time, a time of transition in which something is coming to an end and the new has not yet come. Jesus is saying farewell to his disciples at the Last Supper and preparing them for his crucifixion. But because we read this passage in Easter-tide, we also hear it as…
Today is a good day to talk about doubt: yours and mine. We have just shared the marvels of Christianity's most sacred week. Most of us here this morning participated to one degree or another in the experiences that make up the journey from Palm Sunday through Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter - candle light and star light, atte
