The Tower of Babel at its core is a critique of human desire that is separate from God’s action. When nations work their human designs, they are destined to fail. The Day of Pentecost is the recasting of that story.
The Ascension, properly understood, says something startling about your body. About your memory. About the specific and particular history that has made you who you are at this moment.
The self-giving, self-emptying love that we celebrate this weekend of Mother's Day changes everything. And if we have eyes to see it, it is still all around us.
Entry 2: A Meditation for the Earth Today is Earth Day. Exactly two weeks ago, in the middle of Holy Week, Holy Trinity Church in Tiverton hosted an Earth Tenebrae for the Endangered & Extinct. (This is the second installment of our Dear Rhode Island Church series.) There’s more info about the service and its meaning at the link above.
Twenty years ago I was on a late-night radio program in Phoenix with a rabbi and a Christian host who insisted the Bible was simple — just open it and read. The rabbi stiffened. So did I. What followed was one of the most clarifying conversations I’ve had about faith and reason. This Sunday I’m preaching on the Road to Emmaus at St. Martin’s in Providence — a story about two people who walk beside […]
Peace that is imposed by force is not the true peace that begins with Easter.
God will not abandon us to the darkness and to despair. Easter is our destiny.
The Passion describes something commonplace and unique in history. It’s something that has changed the course of history. It’s still changing us. It exposes a truth we would kill rather than recognize. And that truth saved us from ourselves and still does.
Preconceived notions and rigid interpretations can blind people to God’s work. Be open to seeing God in unexpected forms, such as mud and mess, and be surprised by God’s creative action
Over the next few weeks, including this weekend, my calendar is such that, between travel and other commitments, I’m not going to be able to keep my weekly sermon posting schedule. I’m sorry about that. And extra sorry that this weekend I don’t have a sermon from three years ago to share instead. But I see that one of my favorite preachers, Andrew Gerns, has already posted his sermon for this weekend. Here’s a taste: […]
