The Pastor Is Political: Mother’s Day Edition

Ah, Mother’s Day. Another holiday of banal Hallmark cards, rushing to send flowers and gifts, of handing out red and white carnations (red if your mother is alive, white if she’s dead, or is it the other way around?), of asking our mothers in the congregation to stand. In this more-than-one-year pandemic, motherhood is more… Read More

Pastoral Is Political: Dancing in the Streets

One of my favorite Bible Stories is the story of King David dancing in the street naked. Buck. Naked. Our English translation, as usual, masks that little fact, but it’s there. He was SO HAPPY and SO GRATEFUL, he stripped down and let it go! If you don’t know the story, take a look, 2… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: Use What You’ve Got

Which to choose… the part of the text about the mass protest, or the part of the text about touch… Lord, you do have a sense of humor. I’m sticking with chapter 11 for the majority of this post, but chapter 14 is one of my very favorite texts, in the end, I offer a… 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

Narrative Lectionary: Never Assume [Luke 1:5-13, [14-25] 57-80]

The story of the birth of John the Baptist is the story of the ordinary turned upside down, and made extraordinary.  Every common assumption is reversed, through the power of God. Everyone in the story is wrong about what they expect to happen.  God is in the reversal business all through Advent and Christmas, changing… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: Stuck in the Middle with You (1 Kings 18:[17-19] 20-39)

Oh Elijah. What have we done? What have you done? And how are we supposed to preach about it? For a reading of this week’s text check out Working Preacher’s Commentary. And if you’re not listening to NL;DR with Dr. Amy Robertson and Dr. Robert Williamson then GET THEE TO THE PODCAST NOW! So where… Read More

Thursday Prayer: for dropped balls and endless to-do lists

As jobs slide off the to-do list and are anxiously remembered: grace As balls are dropped and others are lost in the stretch to pick them up: grace As holiday cards sit, stampless on the dining room table: grace With this breath, in this moment: grace May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (that… Read More

Narrative Lectionary: Such A Time

What a time we are living in… What a time to be alive. Esther was not born into royalty; in fact, it is a very complicated and difficult story. By the time Esther is introduced, or Hadassah, as she is know by her Jewish name. She is an orphan, raised by her Uncle or cousin,… Read More