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The nuisance of divine planting
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1 min read
I fight the grass, forcing its way up through cracks in the sidewalk and driveway like an OCD sentry, defending the palace from natural invasion – grass our persistent interloper. My right thumb, the out side of the pointer, just below the tip, begin to ache, like I’ve been writing with a flat pencil. The outer…
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Mercy Is What We Love
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3 min read
It strikes me that our society is more interested in public shaming than actually changing the behavior of its people. We are more interested in taking pictures of people watering their lawns during a drought than we are in more effectively curbing the practice, or better, than transforming how Californians landscape. Of course, I’m not…
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When the Spirit Comes
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8 min read
Seeing, Hearing, Feeling and Testifying in Truth Pentecost | John 15:26-27 & 16:4b-15 When the advocate comes After Jesus comes back from the dead and appears to Mary, appears to his disciples, then appears to them again, now with Thomas in their midst, he says to them that iconic phrase: “Blessed are those who…
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For Pentecost, wear more than red
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5 min read
In many of the Episcopal Churches of which I’ve been a part, there is a regular tradition of wearing red on Pentecost. Red, of course is the liturgical color of the day, but it also matches the fire images that accompany the day. Opportunities to red the place up and evoke the tongues of fire…
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How To Get the Most Out Of Church
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7 min read
Of course I love church. That goes without saying. But I don’t always love the church. I don’t always love the way we do church or the way we incarnate the church. It sometimes gets to me and drains me. Some of that is me. But a lot of it is the way we approach church as church members…
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What If the Church Believed in Eternal Life?
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4 min read
When Jesus speaks of eternal life, he isn’t talking about forever. Many of us learn this in seminary or when we read books about scripture. That this phrase Jesus uses*, “eternal life” doesn’t mean what we think it means. Or to be more precise, doesn’t communicate only the narrow understanding we take it for. The…
Make a New Normal
