I am at the House of Bishop’s Spring retreat and am not able to post a sermon, and I didn’t want to try to repost the one from three years ago… we’re in a different context now than we were then, and I don’t think it speaks to this moment. As I mentioned in the sermon filmed last week, one of my favorite preachers and writers in the Episcopal Church is the Rev. Andrew Gerns. […]
This week’s Gospel reading tells of Jesus surprising teaching to his disciples that the Messiah must suffer and die. He told them this just outside the gates of the seat of Roman power in the region, a place that the Hellenistic conquerers of Palestine used a cultural center to spread the Greek cult of Victory. It’s not surprising, given the context, that the disciples argued with him. But God works in ways that we don’t […]
Maple Anglican (@mapleanglican.bsky.social) over on BlueSky posted a question this afternoon asking people to share their favorite verse in the entire Bible. What a great question. Mine is “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). I can barely read that without tearing up at Christmas each year. What’s yours? Is there a […]
We begin our Lenten journey this, as is customary, by reading the Gospel story of Jesus’ trials and temptation in the Wilderness. But this year, the middle year of our three year lectionary cycle, we read this story according to St. Mark. And Mark, in his unique way, compresses the narrative. So instead of reading the details of the temptation as we do in other years, this year we also read (again) of Jesus’ baptism […]
There’s a great discussion in this morning NYTimes newsletter on why we’re seeing such a divided and divisive response to vaccination. The short version is that the CDC and public policy issued strict guidelines in what is actually a much more nuanced situation. The piece discusses what it means to US culture that our national guidelines for children’s COVID vaccinations were a global outlier – with the CDC taking a much more aggressive stance than […]
‘Places of the living’: bishop of Norwich calls for churchyards to be rewilded | Anglicanism | The Guardian: Graham Usher, the Bishop of Norwich: “My dream is that churchyards will be places of the living, not just the dead.” A paper submitted to the synod meeting in London says there is “noticeable biodiversity potential” within churchyards. However, it adds, “these places carry significance for the communities that surround them … Their significance and primary role […]
In David Brooks new book “How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen” he speaks about the process of illumination – how someone can so totally see another person so that the viewer glimpses the light that shines within the one at whom they are gazing. He talks too about people who are naturally, or who have learned to be, “illuminators” who, by the ability to see the […]
The motif of the secret or hidden Messiah in Mark’s Gospel reminds us that ofttimes God obscures the truth from us. God is present, all around us at every moment, constantly speaking to us but is not easily seen or heard. Jesus says again and again: let those with eyes see, let those with ears hear. What he means is that, if you’re prepared and trained, you can see God all around us, all the […]
Over the years, as I’ve studied the conversation between Science and Theology, it’s been clear that whatever perceived divide there is between the two, the width of that divide varies regionally. And in my experience one form of Applied Philosophy (either Science or Theology) is privileged in the US over the other depending which side the region was on during the Civil War. Essentially one region, the South insisted on a particular hemenuetic (method of […]
The Church in Corinth, founded by St. Paul and comprised of mostly Gentile believers, was deeply divided over many things. One of the things that they struggled with was how much they should separate themselves from the culture around them, from which many had come. Should they keep themselves totally pure and strive not to break a rule or violate a tradition of the community that they were joining, or should they recognize that they […]
