Baptism
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The Opening Act
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8 min read
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 A must read post about the real torture of people versus imagined, metaphorical torture of concepts.
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The Foundation of Faith
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7 min read
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
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4 min read
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
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1 min read
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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Wash
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1 min read
Perhaps the biggest choice we are given by GOD is to choose the scale of our lives. To observe the word through the lens of a small-scale creation of limitation, or the vastness of possibilities.