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Of darkness, confusion, and hope
Driving home, we play “I Spy” and I name something black. The sky! she says. Nope! Something else. I say, but I’m thinking “skies are blue” and I’m thinking “it is dusk, so it is more deep purple” and still the thought confuses me. Black Skies Of course, at night the sky is black. And our…
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Why I Love the Call Stories
Most preachers love the psalms and parables. Me, I’ll take the call stories. The stories where Jesus collects followers like I collected baseball cards and comic books. Intentionally: with respect for big names and the common ones alike. Of course the other stories are sexier. The enduring parables like The Prodigal Son(s), the Good Samaritan, the…
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Repent and Become
And here, at the font, is where we begin. We get the chance to repent and return. We get the chance to realign and to be given a new opportunity. To shake that Etch-a-Sketch we call a life and try again. We get to go through baptism once, but we can keep getting wet. We…
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Revealed By the Light
This is our season of truth. Our season of light. It is casting candles in the dark corners we refuse to visit. It is making new plans and making changes we’ve been avoiding. It is ringing in the new year with an examined courage rather than willful ignorance.
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The Miracle
The Nativity and the Christmas Truce Christmas | Luke 2:1-20 What Is and Isn’t There Have you ever noticed that a word is missing from the account of Jesus’s birth? There is no word telling exactly where Jesus is born. The word stable doesn’t appear, though most of us put him there in our minds.…
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To Be Continued
The never-ending story of GOD a Homily for Advent 2B | Text: Mark 1:1-8 The Beginning The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This gospel, given to us by the writer we call Mark, opens with a declaration of beginning. It does not say this is the beginning,…
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Untalented
How the talents Jesus speaks of aren’t really gifts a Homily for Proper 28A | Text: Matthew 23:34-39 And the master rewards this behavior (dare we say, stealing) of the first two slaves. They know what this man is like. Chances are, they take on this behavior. Think The Wolf of Wall Street and the…
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The Blessed Community
Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, and all of the saints a Homily for the Feast of All Saints | Text: Matthew 5:1-12 For us, this principal feast we call All Saints is not so much about honoring the dead, but honoring the community: the whole community: past and present and future. For honoring only our…