To modern day readers, this encounter with the Eunuch may be one of the wackiest texts we encounter. All the reasons that stick out to us as being weird or miraculous were fairly typical of ministry of the day. Philip is awoken by an angel and told to hit the road and travel on a… Read More
NARRATIVE LECTIONARY: No Reason Not to!!!
Sermon ideas for Sunday April 25, 2021: Acts 8: 26 – 39 Philip baptizing the Eunuch from Ethiopia is a short part of Acts that is packed full of preach-able moments. What I love most about this story is that moment in verse 37 when the eunuch says “What is to prevent me from… Read More
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
Sunday Prayer: Down to the River to Pray
Fires rage
and the air is thick with smoke.
Your creatures, great and small,
long to breathe
the breath of new life, Lord.
Crowds gather,
missiles fly,
and the rhetoric is angry. 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
