Creator God, Oh Holy One, who loves differences and made the world delightfully diverse, thank you. Help your creature, especially we humans, who fall away from your expansive love for variety and instead treat some people as more valuable than other people. Help us to see the beauty, the grace, the vibrancy, the life! In… Read More
Acts 3:12-19 1 John 3:1-7 Luke 24:36b-48 The Acts reading picks up just after Peter has healed the lame man at the Beautiful gate, and drawn a bit of a crowd. The crowd is clamoring, questioning, pushing in on one another – And Peter says basically, what the heck is wrong with you? Peter’s question… Read More
In this thinnest of thin places we wait We are quiet We are awash with awe. As we go about the busyness of the day to come, help us reserve a small space set aside with you. We are waiting, Jesus, we are waiting. The time is close, but it is not time yet. We… Read More
The sun is settling We say goodnight Days end We say goodbye Adiós To God It’s all good Thank you, God Amen ******* Rev. Dr. Marilyn Pagán-Banks (she/her/hers/ella) is a queer womanist freedom fighter gratefully (though not always gracefully) serving as executive director of A Just Harvest, Senior Pastor at San Lucas UCC, and adjunct… Read More
As a church leader, I’m haunted by my student’s question, “Are there any institutions that aren’t oppressive and self-serving?” Read More
Hi, this is my first time hosting the 11th Hour Preacher Party. I am one of the people often writing on Saturday evening. Some of you will already be finished, ready to prerecord, and others, like me, still mulling over the texts. Maybe you are on the RCL with Nicodemus night visit to Jesus, or… Read More
This morning my husband and I were talking about Donald Trump’s 28,000 square foot house in upstate New York. The house he hasn’t been to for four years or so. With an indoor swimming pool and bowling alley and tennis court. Here where I live, our emergency winter shelter just closed down for the season.… Read More
Jesus begins his ministry in John by flipping tables. Since we are doing this out of order, let’s review. Jesus gets baptized by John, starts calling his disciples, gets mom pressured into turning water into wine. His first official act as the messiah is to go into the temple and flip the tables of the… Read More
Holy One. I realized last night that if I were to pray the names of the 500,000+ people in the USA who have now died from COVID-19 it would take me a year of praying 24 hours a day to pray all the names. That’s 1,500 people a day, or about one person a minute… Read More
Reflections on Luke 9: 51-62 The narrative lectionary for Ash Wednesday 2021 provides two Biblical stories that frame rejection in a paradox: the first story tells us of the town that rejects Jesus, and it is followed by the scripture where Jesus seems to reject his would-be followers. In verse 53 where it says “but… Read More
