Lord God, mercy is in your hands, pour me a little. And tenderness too. My need is great… When I first found you I was filled with light, now the darkness grows and it is filled with crooked things, bitter and weak, each one bearing my name. -Mary Oliver, 21st century Later on that day, […]
Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. -Matthew 28:2 (Preached on Sunday, April 16, 2017) Although best known as the author of Anne of the Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery was also a poet. The title poem in […]
We must have faith during the period of our grief. We think that our afflictions will be greater than we can bear, but we do not know the strength of our own hearts, nor the power of God. -François Fénelon, 17th century Holy Saturday. I cannot remember when I last wrote a reflection on Holy […]
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” -Matthew 21:10 (Preached on Sunday, April 09, 2017) What a strange and confusing day. Palm/Passion Sunday, like its name, is a day filled with paradox and confusion. It reminds me of a cartoon. A man is reading the newspaper to a […]
In unimaginable love, God has taken on our humanity – including all our mortal terror, sorrow, and pain – and invited us, in exchange, to participate in the mystery of eternal life that is God’s own nature. God offers us, in that exchange, a partaking of divinity so deep that it amounts to union, … […]
Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. … Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,… -John 11:2, 5 (Preached on Sunday, April 2, 2017) Three friends were discussing death and one of them asked: “What would you […]
Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every coming together again a foretaste of the resurrection. -Arthur Schopenhauer, 19h century Lazarus was dead. There was no doubt about that fact. Jesus tells his disciples plainly as he finally prepares to go to Bethany in response to the message that his dear friend, the brother of […]
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” -John 9:35 (Preached on Sunday, March 26, 2017) While all five of our senses help us connect with our environment, we tend to rely more dependently on our sight than on smell, […]
I shut my eyes in order to see. -Paul Gauguin, 19h century We are half-way through the season of Lent. How is this period of reflection and spiritual practice for you this year? For many it is heightened by what is happening in the world around us and especially in the politics and governance of […]
I arise today throughGod’s strength to pilot me, God’s might to uphold me,God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to see before me,God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me,God’s hand to guard me, God’s way to lie before me,God’s shield to protect me, God’s host to secure me – […]