We wait for you, Lord More than watchers of the morning, More than mourners in the evening, More than questioners of your timing. We wait for you, Lord In the cacophony of pain, In the silence of our doubts, In the answers that do not comfort. We wait for you, Lord The one who formed… Read More
Friday Festival: The Threads We Grasp
Much has been written this week in response to the violence in Charlottesville, VA in the U.S., commenting on the events of last weekend, and reflecting on it as a moral mirror for us all. Wise bloggers have written about learning from our racist history, the racism in our own families, and the kind of… Read More
RevGalBookPals: The Cross and the Lynching Tree
This my confession of American, white privilege of a certain age: when I was in seminary, I took classes on race and ethnicity, but at the same time- I assumed that the biggest fights that would happen in my pastoral ministry would be around sex, sexuality, and gender and money. My social and class location,… Read More
Thursday prayer: Soften our hearts.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stony heart from your body and replace it with a living one… Ezekiel 36:26 CEB We pray for God to soften our hearts… We pray for relationships in which there is conflict, and pray for God’s grace and wisdom to… Read More
Our Spiritual Disciplines: Routines of the House
Growing up, my mom and dad always insisted on Saturday morning that my sister and I would help them clean the house before we got to do anything we called fun. Though it wasn’t meant to be punishment, it sure felt like it. I would regularly complain: “Why can’t I watch cartoons like my other… Read More
Wednesday Prayer
Holy, You love me. Help me absorb that love deep into my skin, let it flow through my veins, circle through my heart, pump it like life into your world. I confess, in my skeptic way, When I see a message, “GDLVSU” on the back of a car, I wonder about the person driving it,… Read More
Revised Common Lectionary: Foreigners and Refugees
Dear preachers, if you have the option in your setting, I highly recommend adding in the optional verses to the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel this Sunday. In a week when hate speech and crimes are making international headlines, this is a poignant time to hear Jesus’ words: It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a… Read More
Tuesday Prayer
Photo from Indivisible Denton rally August 14, 2017 – Denton, Texas / Mary Beth Butler photo Dear Friend, We rally, we write, we pray, we weep But it is not enough. Those of us with privilege must step up, or continue to, and say, NO. To violence, to racism, to Nazism, to fascism. To our similarly… Read More
Monday Prayer
God Weeps God weeps at lives discarded lives disregarded lives ignored God weeps God weeps as the world watches, incredulous but stays silent God weeps God weeps as white men shout and claim God’s authority where no authority is God weeps and I weep and I reel, at my helplessness I live across a distant… Read More
The Pastoral Is Political: On Overload
Are you on overload? I’m on overload. Just in the past week alone, listening to two men threaten one another with nuclear weapons and watching the white nationalist/supremacist/Nazi rallies in Charlottesville has given us more than our souls have bargained for. There’s too much hate happening in our world, and we see it firsthand in… Read More
