Posts

Make Room

“No room,” they say. “All full,” we’re told. “You’ll have to go somewhere else.” What I’ve come to learn that they’re really saying is that they are full. That their capacity for love is limited– their imagination inaccessible. Closed off. Gone.

The Long Tradition of Desperate Pastors at Christmas

The sooner we accept religion is irrelevant the sooner our collective focus can shift towards restoration. Yes, I’m a clergy person, and yes, I think religion is irrelevant. When Christians are arguing about the color of candles, when to start Advent, and what candles to light, it all feels ridiculous in the face of a […]

A Litany for Waiting

Here we are again: a season of waiting, a season of watching.  Here we are again: a season of wondering a season of hoping. 

Cultivating Light (Cultivating Hope in the Climate Crisis- Christmas Eve)

Prayer of the Day God, you cultivated a world that is full of your glory. When we are struggling with dark thoughts and heavy burdens, when we are tired and weary, when we are longing to see you, open our eyes to see your light shining in and through our lives. Guide us to be […]

Cultivating Love (Cultivating Hope in the Climate Crisis- Advent 4)

Prayer O God, show us your steadfast love. In a changing world speak your word of eternal Love which does not change. Hear our cries, from the depths of our longing. Bring us mercy and compassion, tenderness and commitment, all that we need to carry us through. Be born in us this day. As we […]

Cultivating Joy (Cultivating Hope in the Climate Crisis- Advent 3)

Prayer of the Day Creator God, so often we look around us and see only the changes that need to be made. We look past what you are doing in the lives of the children who surround us. Open our eyes to the joy of the world they are creating alongside you. Amen. 

Cultivating Peace (Cultivating Hope in the Climate Crisis- Advent 2)

Prayer of the Day Maker of All That Is, thank you. You are our Source of life and hope. Forgive us for all the ways we sin against you and the Earth. Restore our connection to you and all of Creation, that we might be a part of your great Restoration of the world. Reconnect […]

Cultivating Hope (Cultivating Hope in the Climate Crisis- Advent 1)

Prayer Eternal God, gift us the hope we need to keep awake and watch for your amazing works. Help us participate in the upending of the world as we know it so we will know the world of your loving grace. We pray all this and more in your most Holy Name. Amen. Commentary on […]

Reflections on Incarnation in this Season of Advent

The familiar faces of my parishioners occupy the screen before me as I sit on my zafu, a cushion Buddhists often use while doing a seated meditation called Zazen. I started this weekly meditation group within months of my arrival at Christ Episcopal Church almost six years ago. It is modeled loosely on a recovery […]

No Christmas Without Her: Bathsheba’s Story

Nothing quite says Christmas like a sermon about Bathsheba. Bathsheba is the last woman’s name other than Mary’s to be mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew. Except we don’t exactly get her name. She is remembered as “the wife of Uriah,” already hinting at a complicated story of survival. Christmas does not come to us […]