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The Opening Act
John the Baptizer and the new thing he creates a Homily for Advent 3B | Texts: John 1:6-8,19-28 The messiah is in the wilderness, among the people seeking repentance. He isn’t in Jerusalem with the Pharisees. He isn’t judging or obsessing over the rules. He isn’t kicking out the people who don’t follow the rules,…
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Why Sarah Palin is Right About Baptism by Waterboarding — #AmericanBaptism
Why Sarah Palin is Right About Baptism by Waterboarding — #AmericanBaptism A must read post about the real torture of people versus imagined, metaphorical torture of concepts.
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The Foundation of Faith
a Sermon for Epiphany 2A Text: John 1:29-42 The Foundation How strange this sight must have been for John the Baptizer. So many baptisms and among them is Jesus, the Messiah, the one whose way John is preparing. What John the Baptizer experiences is so significant that he testifies to its power: the Spirit made…
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Jesus has gone swimming
a Sermon for Epiphany 1A Text: Matthew 3:13-17 I insist This morning’s gospel story begins with the most unlikely of conversations. It is a titanic theological battle of You go. No, you go. No, I insist. John the Baptizer and Jesus dance over who baptizes who like two men arguing over which one gets to…
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A Wild Perfection
There is something annoying about perfection.Like a gift, wrapped closed, pristinethe brown paper folded, taped, encircledby paper ribbon, then tied–here! A wild bow like straw,like the uncouth prophet emerging from the wildswith lips sticky from locusts and honey,camel’s hair clothing and belt—known simplyas The Baptizer.Scraggly, unblemished, and unknown.We resist opening and sheddingthis rugged, ravishing beautythat…
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Love Divided
a homily for Proper 15C Text: Luke 12:49-56 A stressed-out Jesus Stress is popping out of Jesus in this text. As much as He may be trying to contain it, He can’t keep it all in. This that He is doing, this baptism of fire, is stressing Him out. He seems to be coming unhinged.…
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Not Gatekeepers, but Gateopeners
There, squirming in such a comfortable chair, made to feel prickly by the moment and its intensity and not the leather or the cushion, it is not my ass, but my brain that is jittery. As a priest, interviews are a whole different beast. This moment, as I recall was the most agonizing for what…
