Have you ever read a Bible passage that spoke so directly to you that it went straight to your heart like an arrow? That's what happened to me 20 years ago when I first read this morning's Old Testament story of Hannah and the birth of Samuel - or, as today's Collect puts it, when I first began to hear,…
As you know, a good number of our community is away this weekend at the Bement Camp and Conference Center, exploring what it means to be peacemakers - to live at peace within oneself, in relation to others, and in relation to the natural world. We who have stayed behind have our own chance to reflect on the way on…
I had an aha! moment a week or two ago, just as the seasons changed and we began heading into fall. I was eating supper with my husband on the porch of our home in Northampton, and as we sat there chatting about our day and digging into greens and raw vegetables that I'd picked up at the Food Bank…
A few weeks ago a reporter from the Daily Hampshire Gazette invited me to be the subject of the newspaper's weekly column "Hampshire I.D." Along with questions such as asking you to describe your funniest memory or your strangest job, the column asks you to name your favorite movie. As you might expect, I felt hon
It is good to be back in Ashfield and to worship with you again. This morning we have a wonderful Gospel text to consider, because today is August 6, the Feast Day of the Transfiguration. You may remember having heard the story of the Transfiguration back in February, because eve
I'd like to say a few words about generosity. It's a topic that made headlines this week when Warren E. Buffett announced that he would give 31 billion dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support the foundation's effort to find cures for the world's 20 le
The last part of May is for many of us a season of transition, a time for weddings and graduations. It's also a season of transition here at Grace Church as we begin looking ahead to the new fiscal year that begins on July 1. By now most of you have received the eloquent letter that Doug Adler and Jane…
Every year on the Sunday after Easter we listen to that marvelous and mysterious story we just heard from the Gospel of John, the story of Jesus showing himself to the disciples on the evening of Easter Day and then returning a week later to reassure and convince the disciple we call Doubting Thomas that yes, the Risen Lord is…
Not too long ago, at the end of a meeting in the Parker Room, a parishioner and I got to talking about the suffering and anxieties that beset the world.
"There's so much to worry about!" she said, shaking her head. "Suicide bombers. Terrorism. Global poverty. The carnage in Darfur. The war in Iraq. The possibility that Iran will…
I have been reading about the difference between "cold memory" and "hot memory." (1) Cold memory reduces the past to a collection of facts, bits of more or less random information that have no particular meaning, no particular bearing on our lives. With cold memory, we look back at the curious things that people used to do, the curious
