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Bear fruit worthy of repentance
When we talk about repentance, do we also rejoice? Why do we so struggle with being changed by God, turned and shaped, being loved? The focus is not on what needs to change, but to let yourself be changed Advent 3C | Luke 3:7-18 John is not holding back! Whew! I don’t want to be…
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Into the Wild Again
In Advent, we feel the subversive nature of following Jesus, the seduction of power, and the quiet call to walk into the wilderness. Jesus, John, and the subversive nature of Advent Advent 2C | Luke 3:1-6 It must be Advent 2 again, because here comes John! Reading about this wild man in the wilderness is…
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Continuing a failed war on terror is a moral failure
The great moral failure wasn’t only in launching the war on terror, it has been in continuing it in spite of all the moral and statistical evidence. The social share title reads “The scene of America’s longest war is now world’s terrorism hotspot”. Nearly 18 years into the war on terror, this headline should be…
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A New Chance
In Luke 21:25-36, we get a vision of the end which usually trips our fears, but Jesus reminds us that he’ll be with us, standing against the fear. In Advent, we begin with the end, because the end is only the beginning. Advent 1C | Luke 21:25-36 There’s a saying: Begin with the end in…
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Not a King
There’s a fundamental flaw in calling Jesus the king. But it isn’t just our perception of kings. It’s how it changes our relationship to Jesus. Proper 29B | 2 Samuel 23:1-7, Psalm 132:1-13 (14-19), John 18:33-37 I’ve heard the argument for an American king. It goes something like this. Our president has two jobs: being…
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tearing down temples
In Mark’s Little Apocalypse, Jesus invites us to see what we’d rather avoid: not only the finitude of existence but the challenge of a life of trusting God. How our temples deny our trust Proper 28B | Mark 13:1-8 I don’t envy the disciples. Here they are, marveling the enormity of the Temple, looking at the…
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an ideal marriage
On Saturday, a bishop of the church rejected the authority of the Episcopal Church. The next morning, scripture rebuked him. Of course, nobody thinks this started on Saturday. We’ve been fighting about sex for decades. But Saturday, something new happened. Bishop William Love, as The Episcopal Bishop of Albany, you wrote a pastoral letter to…
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Devouring Their Houses
Jesus doesn’t simply criticize the priests for their hubris, he exposes the whole system for its corruption, exploitation, and rejection of the poor. of poverty and hubris in the Temple Proper 27B | Mark 12:38-44 Less than a week after starting at my first congregation out of seminary, I went to my first clericus—a meeting of…
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