This week sermon looked at two texts, one from Luke and one from Colossians. Alongside of the reality that we don’t know much about how Jesus grew up is the picture of who he grew up to be: who he became. How do we continue to become, to grow? ___________________ One of the realizations that…
role call were I to place myself in the story I think I would choose to be a shepherd who did not have to prepare a thing they simply abided watching sheep sleep until the angel choir burst into star song and sent them sprinting towards Bethlehem and then they went back to abiding that…
The last Sunday in Advent is always a hard one for me because it’s hard to find something fresh to say, which is why I bounced off of a passage from Philippians today. Here’s where it took me. ____________________ I’m going to take a risk with you this morning: I’m going to start two sermons…
solstice sandwich today was the thinnest of daylight sandwiches the shortest distance between two darknesses last night it began to snow but it was another thinness icing across the landscape an inconsequential covering tonight is the thickest of nighttime sandwiches the widest distance between two daylights tomorrow the sun will rise and it will be…
chowder head I think coincidence and soup are synonyms both words mean to fall together it started with bacon that’s when I knew we were having chowder for supper I found potatoes and chopped clams even as I grabbed items as though I was gathering props for improv giving myself options I couldn’t see yet…
live and learn “the only way to learn is to live” the words came from a fictional librarian who lives in a story about consequences an old word that means what comes next after whatever we said or did or didn’t do which we can’t see until we live through it and that makes me…
One of our favorite Christmas traditions is watching—no, rewatching—movies. We have several that we need to see at some point during the holidays to make the season feel complete: “It’s a Wonderful Life,” of course; “Christmas in Connecticut” with Barbara Stanwyck; “The Preacher’s Wife” with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston; Bill Murray’s take on “A…
coffee shop duet what I saw first was her solitude as she sat on the bar stool matching the expression of the coffee shop’s blank wall but when he entered she turned and so did the light around her they greeted like good friends talking as they shuffled coats to make room for themselves he…
I could hear rain in mid-December days die incrementally losing light almost from the crack of dawn suffocate them with a blanket of clouds and the only light that lives is artificial still light is not life or so I was reminded when I realized I could hear the rain not just the storm but…
interstices the space between trees the crack in the mortar the time between floors if we took away the spaces between us among us the universe would collapse into a fist the rest between notes the breath before words the pause to ponder intervening emptinesses waiting to be noticed to be seen as something other…