July 2012
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About the Bread
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7 min read
a Homily for Proper 12B Text: John 6:1-21 Focus on the Feeding With the Feeding of the Five Thousand, we get one of the most recognizable stories of Jesus in the Bible. To many of us, this is quintessential Jesus. He feeds people. He performs a miracle. He instructs the disciples. He transforms how people…
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How’s the Other Guy Doing?
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3 min read
In weak economic times, we often look at our neighbors to see how they are doing. It is natural. We all know somebody that has lost a job or is struggling to pay bills. My family has been in that boat for a while, timing bills, some of which we weren’t sure would get paid.…
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Experiential Teaching Is Not For the Weak
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2 min read
There is something about this story about a “fake kidnapping” that seems strangely wrong. Not in the idea of terrorizing youth or in the idea that we are an “overly judicious” society. There is something else. Toward the end, we get the defense: “It was a youth event, to illustrate what others have encountered on…
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My Friend: Right or Wrong
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2 min read
When sticking by our friends, we like to say “My friend: right or wrong!” to prove just how devoted we are. We want to show unconditional support. But most of the time we don’t actually mean unconditional support. We do have a condition: that our friends are actually decent human beings. In other words, we…
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a Homily for Proper 11B Text: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 [Sunday I preached without a script. This is an approximation of what I preached.] Sabbath Coming back from vacation, it is appropriate to get this gospel pericope about rest. Or lack there of it. It was just two weeks ago when we covered the story of…
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A Pastor’s Response to General Convention #77
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5 min read
We aren’t the Rotary. We aren’t a country club. We aren’t civil society. We aren’t a local government. We aren’t a Lodge or an Order or anything like that. We are the church and the church is different. We forget that sometimes. And in many ways. When we get together to set up the…