April 7, 2019
Have you ever had a moment when a smell elicits a really strong memory for you? I had that happen a few years ago, when I walked into that Hungry Hollow store out on Route 26. I stepped in and a wave of nostalgia washed over me. It took me a minute to figure it…
March 31, 2019
So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. We hear the second half of that statement, the call to be reconciled to God, every Ash Wednesday. It is the heart of the message of Lent: we have a…
March 24, 2019
He was a liar, a deceiver, a coward, and a murderer. No, I’m not referring to anyone whose name might have appeared in the paper this week. I’m talking about Moses, the one who was called by God to lead his people out of oppression and slavery in Egypt, into the Promised Land where they…
March 17, 2019 Lent 2
What does the word sacrifice mean to you? Does your mind go to the troubling image from this morning’s first reading: bloody, dead animals set out for the Lord God? Or is it something a little tamer—a parent giving something to their kids instead of keeping it for herself? A baseball player making a sacrifice…
March 3, 2019 TRANSFIGURATION
Every year, the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday is Transfiguration Sunday. We hear one of the Gospel’s stories of Jesus going up on a mountain to pray and suddenly being transfigured into something dazzling, blindingly bright, standing with Moses and Elijah. We read how the disciples respond—usually badly—and occasionally we hear the story of what…
February 17, 2019
Last Sunday, someone who had heard my sermon for the electing convention asked me to share it with all of you. I had misgivings—so much of it refers to the context in which I preached it. But I think what she was asking for was one particular segment, which I am happy to share with…
February 3, 2019
A while back I read that the #1 song the week I was born, was “All You Need is Love” by the Beatles. That was the “Summer of Love,” so it’s no surprise that its theme song was such a kitschy, feel-good tune. (Dah! Da dadadaaaa) We live in a culture that is “love” obsessed,…
January 13, 2019 Baptism of Our Lord
On Tuesday, as I sat in my office at Trinity digging into the readings for today, I received a telephone call. A man looking for help. He and his wife needed someplace to stay for a few nights, while they waited for the application for housing assistance to be processed. Most of the time I…
Christmas Eve, 2018
A few weeks ago, I followed with some interest a thread of a conversation about the baby Jesus. It was not a discussion about the theology of the Incarnation, no. It was a whole series of stories about how the baby Jesus from people’s nativity scenes went missing, and what they used to replace him….
December 23, 2018 Advent 4
Every Christmas eve we sing “O little town of Bethlehem” and hear the story of how Jesus was born there. It gives us a false sense of its importance in its own context, I think. Bethlehem was a backwater, nothing town. Yes, King David was from there, but that was where he started—not where he…
