In the United States it is the Martin Luther King, Jr. commemoration and one of three hundred and sixty-six days this year to think about race. We sing “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” the poem by James Weldon Johnson set to music by John Rosamond Johnson, but I’m not sure it is good today to… Read More
Friday Prayer: The Small Hours of the Soul
3 a.m. is an unholy hour. Not because God is absent, but because in the exhaustion of the soul, Idols creep in, hauling their own plinths behind them. The petty gods of anxiety and frustration fight over the floorspace of your mind While slinky griefs and self-doubt drape themselves cunningly in the most conspicuous places.… Read More
RevGalBookPals: The #MeToo Reckoning
Content Warning: sexual assault, abuse, rape, church abuse, I am Lutheran (ELCA). In Lutheran theological understanding, all of the commandments are interconnected, not only to our relationship with God, but to our relationship with other people. Commandments are most quickly broken because we (people) create false idols. These are not the golden calf of… Read More
Tuesday Prayer
God of Greys and Brightness, In this post Christmas season, As the lights have been taken down And clouds have filtered in, The funk of January has permeated our souls. Whether the days are cold and dreary north of the Equator Or the days are arid and scorching to the south, Our balance seems off.… Read More
RCL: God Calling
My call story involves an Amy Grant song and Route 128 in Massachusetts. I was already enrolled in a graduate program in Pastoral Ministry. I had been thinking of it as a useful prelude to what I thought I wanted to do: study Jungian psychotherapy. Then, one fall day I found myself driving to the… Read More
Friday Prayer: Care of All Things
Creator of all things- I pray for the animals, the bugs, the creeping things, the critters that you made, love, and for which you care. I trust that each tripping hoof, whispering antenna, and minuscule stretch is known to you. I grieve that the missteps of human beings cause pain and suffering to our created… Read More
Tuesday Prayer
God of all Creation- As the world wobbled and rumbled this morning in Puerto Rico, We send our prayers and our love to the ones now seeing a shattered world. As electricity and water has ceased, We pray that they can find the resources they need. May their earthquakes end, And may their trauma heal.… Read More
Saturday Prayer: Two Days Out
God, we are two days out from epiphany and my view is backside of a camel, the road is a blister-maker, the night-sky is cloudy, and I think I am going to make a bad decision. I know that being wise involves avoiding the bullies, in families, communities, schoolyards, prison yards, nursing homes, work places,… Read More
Friday Festival: Turning the Corner into a New Year
It’s not just one year ending and another beginning. This year there is the added impact of a new decade. When we write the date, this year we need to retrain our muscle memory to write two different digits instead of just one. The new year was on the minds of a number of our… Read More
11th Hour Preacher Party: An Epiphany!
Are you observing Epiphany? Or the Second Sunday of Christmas? Or something else, moving into the new year? Revised Common Lectionary (including both Epiphany and Christmas 2) and Narrative Lectionary posts are available for inspiration. (Have you found the Wandering Wisemen on facebook yet?) Here is the place to offer and ask for help, on… Read More
