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Learning to Feast
The Wedding Banquet, the king’s demands, and a kingdom of opportunity a Homily for Proper 23 A | Text: Matthew 22:1-14 A Strange Wedding There’s a part of this story that Jesus tells the Pharisees that makes sense to us and a part that doesn’t at all. This is the story of a weird kind of…
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When the Leader Is Not the Problem
We are eager in the U.S. to blame our leaders and hold them responsible for our dysfunction. I am now realizing that this often should not be the case. Or, to be honest, it should rarely be the case. A friend reminded me in the spring as I spoke to him about some structural plans…
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What Ben Affleck Should Have Said to Bill Maher
Dear Bill Maher, I know you aren’t trying to condemn a whole particular religion. But you actually like condemning religion. You’ve done it before. So when you say it’s about “the ideas” rather than the people, I don’t buy it. The argument you made last week, and again this week, is based not on the ideas,…
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Closer to the Kingdom
How the negative helps us find the positive in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants a Homily for Proper 22 A | Text: Matthew 21:33-46 It is a great honor to be here to join you this morning. I am so thankful for the grace and generosity that has been shown to me already. I…
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I Am Not Your Father: the challenge of the postmodern priesthood
As a kid, I don’t remember my Dad being called Father Tom. That doesn’t mean there weren’t quite a few people who did. Or used the more proper Fr. Downs. Sometimes it was Pastor, Preacher, or the grammatically inappropriate Reverend. Most of my life, as I try to recall it, my Dad went by his…
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Can a tire swing not be made from a tire?
My daughter and I went to a park in Marquette, Michigan last week. Wood play scape, swings, everything. I was drawn to this blue tire swing. When I got there, I discovered it isn’t a tire swing. It is a round swing of molded plastic that looks like a tire swing. But it can’t be.…
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We Labor Together
Fairness in the Kingdom is not about your wealth, but our health a Homily for Proper 20 A | Text: Matthew 20:1-16 GOD’s way doesn’t seem fair It seems fitting that we would spend my last few weeks here dealing with what holy community looks like to Jesus. It is almost as if He’s trying to tell us something. I…
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