For the Monday prayer practices during Advent, I will be posting reflections on different characters from the Advent and Christmas stories. I pray a blessed and holy Advent for you all! The reflection below is adapted from a sermon I preached a few years ago. The scripture reading is Luke 1:5-25. – – – –…
Lately, I’ve kinda felt like Jesus. Not Jesus when he was kind-hearted and compassionate–blessing the children and touching the lepers. Not Jesus when he was in the miracle groove–oozing healing power onto everyone who touched him or turning a few iffy fish into the best potluck meal ever. Not Jesus when he was impressing (and…
This week my had has been full of sinus drainage, leaving little room for deep, blog-worthy thoughts. Plus, during those precious moments I have been able to escape the demands of work and family . . . I have been sleeping instead of writing. But hey, there have been weeks–thankfully many of them–when I did…
In all of the news coverage of the anti-Muslim video and the world-wide reaction to it, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about offense–both giving it and taking it. I’ve wondered where exactly the lines of blame should be drawn. Do we have a right to offend each other? With a lot of contemporary moral…
I’m excited to begin the Fruit of the Spirit Creative Arts retreat in daily life this weekend! All those who ordered materials should have received a welcome email with links to our Facebook page and the retreat blog page. You can find out more about the retreat here. And it is not too late to…
So here’s the part of yesterday’s sermon that is most compelling for me. The texts are Matthew 4:18-22 and 9:9; you can read the whole thing here. * * * * * * * Peter and Andrew, James and John and Matthew don’t just leave behind stuff, they leave behind their most comfortable identities–the work…
Thanks to the encouragement of Rachel Held Evans, some bloggers wrote last week about gender equality–particularly within the Christian church and home. One of my favorite posts is from Tony Jones who provides a pointed interpretation of Mark 3:29: “If the Holy Spirit has given the charism of preaching or teaching or pastoral care to…
“So the dove was talking?” asked one child. “No,” I replied. “That’s weird,”said another child. “I never heard of a talking dove.” “The dove wasn’t talking,” I said. “The dove came down from the sky and there was a voice from heaven.” “From the dove?” asked another child. “No,” I said. “The dove did not…
If you look to the right of the screen, you will notice some new links labeled “pages.” I’ve been trying to post sub-pages for my “Sermons, Etc.” page for the last few weeks, and realized they were not showing up. So the helpful support folks at WordPress told me I could change my theme or…
When I saw that one of the Lectionary readings for this week was from Leviticus, I promptly (and, yes, sarcastically) informed my husband that we don’t hear enough sermons based on Leviticus. Well, you know what’s coming next, right? I’ll be preaching on Leviticus this week. It’s a stunning, beautiful text. Actually, I am drawn…
Spacious Faith 