Saturday Prayer – Prayer for Healing

Oh Christ the Healer, This is our prayer. Heal our broken bodies Heal our broken hearts Heal our broken world. And when the time for healing is past and gone or not yet come grant us strength and courage and the holy help of one another. Amen. Jennifer Garrison Brownell serves as pastor at Vancouver… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: Called to Decolonize (Genesis 12:1-9)

Later this month will mark the one year anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Puerto Rico as its 3.3 million residents still reeled from the impact of the often forgotten Hurricane Irma which hit the island just two weeks before. As I type these words, I whisper the name Raúl Pagán, my father’s cousin—que en… Read More

RCL: Trying to Abide in God’s Tent

After reading the texts this week, my first thought was can we please have more bread? The return to Mark is rather jarring. Many U.S. pastors are on vacation this weekend, some are concluding summer sermon series, and the rest might be right with me in wishing for more bread. Then, without further delay, let’s… Read More

The Pastoral is Political: Resurrection Courage

Last Wednesday, April 4th, I had the privilege of taking part in a silent prayer walk through the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. It was my first time there. I was filled with mixed yet deep emotion being there on that day, especially. This silent sojourn was both a commemoration of Dr. King’s… Read More

Revised Common Lectionary: Equipped for Resistance

After the U.S. elections last fall, I heard many people saying things like, “How are we going to survive this?” and “It’s never been this bad before.” My response was, and continues to be, “The people of God have been here before. If we seek to serve God, we will find a way through.” This week’s… Read More

Revised Common Lectionary: Called and United

In this week’s installment of Adventures in Preaching, we who follow the Revised Common Lectionary have options of a hopeful prophesy in Isaiah (that is fulfilled by Jesus in Matthew), the calling of some of Jesus’ disciples, a Psalm expressing deep faith, and Paul preaching to the church in Corinth about unity. Those of us in… Read More