Hospitality of Strangers

One of several strange and uplifting stories that came out of my trip to Montpelier and interview with the Montpelier and Plainfield churches. As with most strange (and stressful) stories, this involves my handful of a kid, Ari. We arrived in the Montpelier area early on Thursday so that my husband could do some paperwork…

Announcements, anouncements

Having (tearfully) made the announcement in church this morning, I can now tell all of you that it is the intention of Bishop Hassinger and the Cabinet of Troy Conference to appoint me to Trinity United Methodist Church in Montpelier and Grace United Methodist Church in Plainfield, Vermont, effective September 1. Clearly, there were a…

Sermon: Lessons in What Not to Do

"Lessons in What Not to Do" ( June 29, 2008 ) Does God give us permission to question, to debate, to dialogue about the words we believe come from God? I believe so. I believe God tells us this strange and disturbing story to teach us that we must always question words that condone violence,…

Signs of life

Sorry about the dead air for a bit there. A few things going on that I will share soon. A great story about hospitality that will have to wait a day or two. A pondering: what to call this week's sermon? I'm positive I'm the only person in the sanctuary who would have understood the…

Eureka!

Replying to my sister's comment from my previous post, and still thinking about it, I got the nugget. I think I figured out not only my sermon, but how I can live with this text (and I didn't even have to hunt down a copy of Leonard Sweet's out-of-print book, although I still have a…

Lectionary woes

Really, seriously, what are we supposed to say about this? What can we say about a God who asks a father to sacrifice his son? What can we say about a father who agrees? How do we not turn this into further violence by saying God later does the same thing to God's own son,…

Murphy’s Law Sunday

Well, I posted my most recent sermon, Handful of Sparrows. Sermons are now in 64kb, which means longer download time for anyone on dialup, but a more standard podcast quality. Which of course means you can hear my mic feedback at a higher quality now. Yeah, sorry about that. Some Sundays the world just seems…

Sermon: Handful of Sparrows

"Handful of Sparrows" ( June 22, 2008 ) Both the Gospel and the Hebrew Bible lesson today insist on a remarkable truth: God cares for the least valuable creatures in the world-- even when those creatures are us. (Genesis 21:8-21, Matthew 10:24-39)

Where two or three are gathered…

I was asked to officiate an odd funeral today. I didn't know the woman who had died, or her friend who had made the arrangements. That's not odd. What was odd was that the man who made the arrangements ended up being the only person who came. The deceased had been born, lived most of…

ApostlePaul.wordpress.com

Friend and fellow blogger Jeremy has a great post today about the meaning of the Incarnation in a virtual world. One of the tenets of Christianity is that Jesus is God-with-us, Emmanuel, human. How do we preach the Incarnation in a world where we can craft virtual space so easily and completely? I won't try…