Sermon: Prayer, Interrupted

Prayer, Interrupted (June 28, 2015) With grief and sorrow, and the commitment not just to pray, but to act, we lift our laments for the attack on Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina. (Psalm 130, 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27) - - - I quote from a reflection by my colleague, Steve Garnaas-Holmes.

After Borg: How one lecture gave me atonement to believe in

There are many voices lifted up this week in thanksgiving for the life and evangelism of scholar Marcus Borg. Perhaps all the stories that need telling have been told. But this one is mine. The whole long post is now six and a half years old, and is worth the fun reading if you want…

Sermon: Hope and Longing

"Hope and Longing" (November 30, 2014 - First Sunday of Advent) In the wake of more racial injustice, and in the face of pandemic illnesses, what does it mean to hold out hope? Can we hear the sacred longing in our own cries of "how long?", and cling to the Advent promise that Christ is…

We Are Here.

I'm thinking of a Dr. Seuss story about Whos today. No, not How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Although I'm feeling particularly non-Christmassy at the moment. Let's start there. Remember Rev. Frank Schaefer? He's the United Methodist pastor from Pennsylvania who officiated for the wedding of his son and his son's husband in 2007, only to…

Sermon: Christmas is Coming, George Bailey!

"Christmas is Coming, George Bailey!" (December 15, 2013) George Bailey is at the end of his rope, unable to see a way forward, when Hope breaks into his life, against all odds. Can we learn from his story that hope can enter again, in unlikely places and through unlikely people, and to respond with compassion…

Every year on this date, I thank God for Kathe Darr

It was the second full day of classes in the fall 2001 semester at Boston University School of Theology. The basement lecture hall was filled with first year graduate students, cut off from the sunlight and the outside world for the duration of the 9 am church history class. These were the days before smartphones…

Lost, and Finding…

"I feel like a lost a year of my life." That's what I tell people, and it's true. Struggle and strife in my marriage, counseling and arguing, separation and paperwork, single parenting and legal questions still unresolved (and a broken ankle, too). All of these things seemed to suck away my energy and consume my…

Sermon: Falling Scales– Ananias and the Boston Bombing

"Falling Scales" (April 21, 2013) In the wake of the bombing in Boston this past week, we reflect on what it means to forgive, and to reach out to those we might call enemy, drawing on Jesus and the lesser known Ananias of Damascus as examples. (Acts 9:1-20) --- Before the sermon, I played this…

But Have Not Love

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I…

Resisting the wilderness

I think I'm back. Huge life and family transitions sucked months and months of my life away; adding the Advent, Christmas, and New Year seasons on top practically turned me into a hermit. I feel like I woke up a few weeks ago, blinking my eyes into the sudden brightness, and marveled that there was…