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Why do you follow?
a Homily for Proper 13B Text: John 6:24-35 Why do you follow Jesus? For Christians, this should be an easy enough question. But it isn’t for most of us. Or at least there’s trouble in the answering. Why do you follow Jesus? For many of us, we had a moment in which our belief in…
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When Pants Don’t Fit, Quit Wearing Them
We all hate when our pants don’t fit. My wife put my favorite jeans in the dryer and now I have to lose a couple of pounds to get them back on. Thankfully, these aren’t jeans I’ve had forever. I’m not trying to put on any pants I wore in high school, trying to prove…
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Abuse of the Cross
a Sermon for Good Friday Text: John 18:1-19:42 Reading the Passion narrative from the gospel we know as John provides the postmodern hearer with two challenges (besides the obvious, of course): dealing with John’s use of the phrase “The Jews” and the need to repent for the cross. The writers of John use the phrase…
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Belief v. Action
In church circles there is a lot of exercise around the idea that there is dichotomous relationship between our beliefs and our actions. This is particularly evident between the groups Phyllis Tickle refers to as the Social Justice Christians (ie. the Mainliners) and the Conservative Christians (conservative evangelicals and Southern Baptists). In this paradigm, one…
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Love Poem
What is love but speculation? We carefully construct our appearance and speak reasonably and passionately; a courting ritual so deceitful and ambitious in its attempt to win loyalty and devotion. And yet, it is love that enters in behind lust and desire. It eats away selfish demands, revealing joy and childish giddy inhabiting even stern…
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When GOD Gives Conflicting Instructions
On her blog yesterday, the Rev. Susan Russell announced a Celebration of Equality. It is a really special event in the life of her Pasadena congregation and I’m sure is going to be an awesome sight. In the midst of this celebration is a “sneak preview” of a new documentary about the Rt. Rev. V.…
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A Second Wedding
Last night I presided over a reaffirmation of marriage for an amazing couple. Bill and Amy have been married for 20 years, and as they described to me, almost all of it has been wonderful. But some of it was incredibly rough. So this was a really big deal. I was moved by their devotion to one…