love
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The hard message of a simple love
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7 min read
To love as Jesus says and does Easter 6B | John 15:9-17 All You Need is Love? We are once again in John 15, which is part of this book’s accounting for Jesus’s final teaching at the last supper. Whereas Mark, Matthew, and Luke have Jesus get right down to the point, giving them…
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What should marriage be?
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7 min read
A “Should’ve Asked Question” While the Supreme Court mulls about trying to figure out what to do with the Frequently asked question: What do we do with “gay marriage”? we are actually left with more pertinent questions. Digging into the politics and legal cases for and against “marriage equality” send us into a spiral of…
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Living in the midst of death
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7 min read
Jesus’s vine image and the challenge of abiding in him Easter 5B | John 15:1-8 A Green Thumb My Mom is a gardener. When we moved up to Alpena from southeast of Detroit, we were moving into a rectory: a two-story beauty with a side porch and slightly sloping lawn. Big, mature trees next…
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How to Really Celebrate Valentine’s Day
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3 min read
I used to hate Valentine’s Day. It’s a Hallmark holiday I’d say. It’s an excuse to buy somebody more stuff I’d say. It’s about making the women in our lives happy I’d say. I was much more cynical then. At its root, the problem I had with the way we celebrate Valentine’s Day is that it…
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Love and Sacrifice
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5 min read
a Homily for Easter 6B Text: John 15:9-17 Last week’s Gospel pericope ended with verses 7 and 8 which read: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and…
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Being Where GOD Will Be
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8 min read
That is our certainty. It is found being where GOD is. Where GOD says GOD will be. It isn’t found in our stated beliefs or creeds or political affiliation or what our Sunday School teachers taught us about GOD: it is about how we treat the powerless and the defenseless.