Friday prayer: water, water everywhere

Water: the trinitarian substance that contains multitudes As a liquid it cleans, quenches thirst, and bears vessels between land masses It also floods homes and communities, leaving behind physical and financial ruin As a solid it preserves our food, locks toxic gases beneath permafrost, and cools us off in extreme heat It also induces hypothermia,… Read More

Worship words — baptism of the Lord

It’s hard to imagine Baptism of the Lord Sunday online, but many of us (not all, of course) will find ourselves looking for a way to engage in a traditionally tactile liturgy in a digital way. If you have found that our liturgical language is not quite up to the task, here are some starting… Read More

RCL: Power vs. Perfection

In Mark 1:4-11 Mark gives the succinct version of John the Baptist. The power of this narrative is so strong that every line could be read and pondered. “John the Baptizer appeared.” Why did he appear? How did he know when to do so? Was he told by his mother Elizabeth, relative of Mary? Did… Read More

Pastoral is Political: “Pastor, Stay in Your Lane!”

We in the United States are less than two weeks away from nation-wide elections in the middle of an economic crash wrapped in a COVID pandemic and fried in “science sucks” with a side of a high-stakes Supreme Court nomination.  We will soon know what kind of United States of America people have voted for,… Read More

RCL: Baptism Renewed

It is time for baptism of Jesus, a well-worn text from the Revised Common Lectionary. This year its Matthew 3:143-17. Many leaders take this opportunity to hold a renewal of baptism. The timing is fitting in the secular calendar, New Year, New Start, Baptism Renewal. After the re-realization of who Christ is and that Jesus… Read More

Friday Prayer

Life-giving Mother, Strengthen me to say… To the spiritual forces that oppose you, Get behind me, Satan! To the political forces that subvert your desire for healing and wholeness, Get behind me, Adversary! To the force within me, struggling for control of others and all situations, Get behind me, Sin!   I renounce the forces… Read More

RCL: You are My I Love You

When I read John 15:9-17 I find myself reading it in many different tones. So far, my favorite is to read it in is exasperation. You the super-exasperated “I love you” that is sometimes the best you have to give one another. Its a favorite of my husband and I’s, we will be completely be… Read More

Revised Common Lectionary: John the Baptist and glancing at other texts

Hello Friends, I hope your re-entry post-Christmas hasn’t been too bumpy. Perhaps it is because of the frenzied time of Christmas that the RCL returns every year to John the Baptist text. Hopefully Mark 1:4-11 can be familiar but not tired as you look forward. Although not a Christian concept, the idea of revolutionary baptism… Read More