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Sweating It Out: celebrating the Eucharist in a hoodie
I had trouble sleeping Saturday night. I was angry. Angry that George Zimmerman wouldn’t be punished, for the fear that has beset the African American community, for all the bullshit post-racism talk of my white neighbors. Mostly, I was angry that I was feeling powerless as a church leader to express myself. It frightened me…
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You Are the Servant Leader
“You’re the pastor” This is the gentle reminder many clergy receive: as if we’ve forgotten. It usually happens when we’ve invited our people into sharing leadership of a ministry. We say “you can do this” and they say “but you’re the pastor”. And for those of us that wear the dog collar, we get reminded…
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Confused by Jesus
a homily for Proper 8C Text: Luke 9:51-62 Confused by Jesus Everybody is confused. James and John are confused. These three seekers are confused. We are definitely confused. We are confused by Jesus. There is no other explanation for our behavior. This part of the gospel we call Luke reveals a moment of true confusion.…
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Saved from our own demons
a homily for Proper 7C Text: Luke 8:26-39 Listen to the homily here and read along below The Man I feel bad for this guy. We don’t know his real name. He is cast out from the city, living naked, possessed by many demons, despised and reviled. If we are being honest, we use him…
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“God” is not God’s name | The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor
Check out this short excerpt: “God” is not God’s name | The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor. God language can tie people into knots, of course. In part, that is because “God” is not God’s name. Referring to the highest power we can imagine, “God” is our name for that which is greater than…
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The scandalous character of ministry
The Lectionary did us no favors by jumping into Luke at chapter 7, skipping what I think are the two most important chapters in the whole gospel in 5 and 6. Smack in between the calling of disciples and the Sermon on the Plain is one of my favorite moments of Jesus’s. It is striking…
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Being Shown What To Do
a homily for Proper 5C Text: Luke 7:11-17 Listen to “Being Shown What To Do” here and read along Getting Focused On Wednesday night (at Basics), we talked about ministry. What it is, who does it, and why it matters. The Book of Common Prayer describes it as the work of the laity, bishops, priests,…
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I Can Label Myself, Thanks.
Some people don’t like labels. It’s common among members of my generation to reject them. However, it seem that when people say this, they are really trying to say that they don’t like being labeled by others. Or perhaps the problem isn’t the label, but the box in which we put those people we label.…