In John 5, Jesus ask a man, who has been blind for 38 years, if he wants to be made well. This is not a question merely about having vision restored, but a question about the desire to have a completely different life- engaged and participating in community in a way that has been denied… Read More
Thursday Prayer
Gracious God,We repent. The ways we’ve turned from your love. The ways we’ve rejected your community. The ways we’ve abandoned your justice. Holy Love,We repent. The hate in our hearts. The evil in our policies. The greed in our leadership. The lies on our lips. Spirit Divine,We repent. Our tendencies toward apathy. The distractions we… Read More
The Pastoral is Political: Interruptions
I was in the middle of writing The Pastoral is Political post, when someone came into the church to talk to me. We spoke, masked and distanced for an hour, before I began to get messages about the attack on the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C. We cannot pretend this is normal, so I… Read More
Wednesday Prayer
God on this day of Epiphany, we invoke the spirit of our ancestors, Los Tres Reyes Magos, the wise men, the magi, the scholars, the astrologers Called by many names Remembered for many reasons ~ ashé Today God, as we face election battles, the rise of white supremacist groups, poverty, and hunger at an all-time… Read More
Tuesday Prayer
God of light, On the days of shadows and clouds, our souls feel the strain of gray. Will sunlight pierce through the thickness of dread? Will light reach our foreheads, our hands, our spirits? Whether winter clouds or summer storms, erase clouds from the skies. Remove the clouds hovering above our minds and encapsulating our… Read More
Monday Prayer
Help us Holy One: To feel at the edges with the tips of our fingers To pull the loose thread, the one that will unravel all of the injustice we’re tangled up in To listen harder and with more intention to all of the holy things you have to say To speak louder and braver… Read More
Saturday Prayer, January 2, 2021
This is the story about this picture, a picture I call “comfort and joy.” It is a porta potty at a building site near where I live, halfway between Crossroads House, the shelter for people who are unhoused and the downtown of Portsmouth. Work has stopped on the site till spring, but they have left… Read More
Friday Prayer: 1 January 2021
I said to my soul, Soul, we are here. We are here with the aches of the past. We are here with the promise of the future. The past has promise too. That someday there will be meaning and depth and story that we do not yet see. That promise fulfilled does not mean that… Read More
Thursday Prayer: New Year’s Eve
This is a prayer for anyone who is not readyfor the New Year yet.Who is not readyto move on yet.Who doesn’t have energy for “New Year New You”. Who is still in the grief of it all,who isn’t ready to be gratefulfor it right now,or to turn all hard times into “growth”. This is a prayerfor anyone… Read More
Wednesday Prayer
As the year ends, God, what shall we keep from this year? What blessings have we wrestled out of its kick to the stomach, its unrelenting grief and hollowing loneliness? And what, O God, shall we take up in the new year, as it brings its gift of newness to our weariness? May we hold… Read More
