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The wedding is the red herring
a Sermon for Proper 23A Text: Matthew 22:1-14 Give it up for weddings Raise your hand if you like weddings. All those happy people, the good food, a pervasive spirit of hope. Everybody dressed in their finest. The two, whose binding together we gather to support and cheer have never looked so beautiful and powerful. …
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Responsibility without possession
Proper 22A Text: Matthew 21:33-46 Like last week, the lectionary has us dealing with some pretty tough stuff. It should come as no surprise since this all takes place during Jesus’s final week. Jesus has entered Jerusalem in a mock triumphal entry with his merry band of misfits and enormous crowd of followers. The group…
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Not Mindless
Prime Minister David Cameron was on vacation while parts of London burned. After a few days, he decided to make an appearance. England’s leaders and members of the media have called the uprising in several poor communities in London “mindless”. Condemning atrocious acts as “mindless” is a way of totally discrediting the other party’s humanity. …
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playing cards
As I climbed into the car, my daughter told me that she and her Nana were “playing cards” in the backseat. After a minute, I realized it was a modified version of “Go Fish”. “Do you have some 2’s?” she asks her Nana as I pull out of the parking lot. “Sophia, do you have…
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Violence is not a given
I used to play over 30 hours of video games per week, so as a former gamer, the recent Supreme Court decision overturning a California ban on violent video games on free-speech grounds makes me happy. I’m predisposed to supporting a maligned and misunderstood industry. However, it is how the industry won that is deeply…
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What John really means by “eternal life”
Actually, this is a link to my last homily at St. Paul’s from a few weeks ago. I’d love to get some feedback on it, since I tried something new: I blended poetry and prose together and chose to describe the issues rather then answer them. Let me know what you think! And by the…
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Hearing Jesus: my manifesto
The most profound thing Jesus ever taught wasn’t something he said. It is something he did. He split his time with his followers and took on a different posture for each group. And of course, there are three groups: The Needy Jesus gave his greatest gifts to those most in need of it: his time,…
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No Retaliation
My sermon for Proper 7A (yesterday) is up here. It deals with our culture of retaliation and Jesus’s encouragement to see another alternative; an alternative that we have trouble seeing because we are so committed to violence and retaliation. I thought it was a little spicy. What do you think?