What Will I Teach My Daughter About Sex?

I was raised in a Christian environment that advocated “purity culture.” My older siblings were part of a traveling group of Christian teen actors called H.E.A.R.Ts. – Helping Educate Abstinent and Responsible Teens. I was familiar with purity rings, slogans like RLW – Real Love Waits, and Josh Harris’s book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. When […]

Pancakes, Strangers, & BBQ: What I Learned About God’s Favorites from Reading Leviticus

Every January, I start off the year full of hope, perhaps like the rest of you, setting out in a new direction. One of my annual “fresh starts” is the intention of reading the Bible through the year. I begin in the beginning (cue Fraulein Maria, “A very good place to start…”) with Genesis. The […]

I Will Cry Out

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city […]

You Have to Put the Baby down Somewhere

“You have to put the baby down somewhere” A Sermon for Port Royal Baptist Church Christmas Morning 2016; Year A Luke 2; Titus 2:11-14 Hiking, working in the field all day, mowing the lawn, weeding the garden: Humans are able to do a surprising number of things while holding babies. Washing hands, cooking, drawing up […]

The Book of Ruth: A Reflection on the Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

It’s midnight. At some point my sleepless child drifted off. I did for a while, but it didn’t last. I felt drawn to read the Bible. Of course, I turned to the book of Ruth. Where else, on this night, when we have lost RBG? Ruth is an odd story in many ways. The whole […]

What God Can Do with Dust

Our fifth frozen embryo transfer (FET) was on Ash Wednesday last year. Our first pregnancy ended on an Ash Wednesday three years before that. In between those experiences, Lent became a time not for deepening my connection with God but to try and wrangle my body into pregnancy through fertility treatments. I did not know […]

Opening Worship

Opening Worship 7-29-19 There were arches and a peak made of wood and polished, carved with a clover symbol for the Holy Trinity.   And feathers were laid on the altar, beyond the rail where the minister presides, which was draped with green and white for ordinary time.   And the organ pipes spread their […]

The Attempted Intimidation of Mary Magdalene

This is a poem based on Matthew 28:4, 11-15, reminding us that if the resurrection is for real, we have to #believewomen. You didn’t see what you saw. You think anyone is gonna believe you stayed on your feet when the big strong men didn’t? You think anyone is gonna believe you saw a dead […]

All This Weary World

“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” is one of those hidden-gem Christmas carols that we do not sing as often as other favorites, like “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” or “O Come All Ye Faithful” or “Away in a Manger.” If we know it at all, we might know the first verse by heart and, […]

Holy Hearing & Holy Forgetting

When it comes to confession, Anglicans have historically leaned hard on the “none must” part of the traditional phrase, “all may, some should, none must.” Confession is a scary thing to contemplate. It’s too Catholic. It’s too old fashioned. It’s too …. vulnerable. Many Episcopalians and Anglicans I’ve met aren’t even aware that private confession […]