The pattern is the same every year. We celebrate Easter and God’s victory over death in the resurrection of Jesus, the son of God. Then 50 days later we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples at Pentecost. And then the next Sunday, before we launch...
John Howard Griffin was 16 when he left his home in a small south Georgia town to study in France in the years before World War II. Once there, he joined the French Underground and began helping to smuggle Jewish people out of Germany, putting them on boats to safety...
In Sunday School this spring we are viewing a video series called Living the Questions that explores what it means to be a progressive Christian, how and what we believe. Last week, the discussion centered around how we interpret scripture, including how a story may...
“Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?” We hear that question asked in our second reading today. It’s a rhetorical question, and at first hearing sounds a bit naive. We all know that doing the right or the good thing is no guarantee against being...
“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” I have been preaching for almost three decades now, and in all those years I have never preached on this...
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. We say those words just about every Sunday in the Eucharistic prayer. The Christ has died and Christ risen parts we understand. Or at least we talk and preach about fairly regularly, particularly in...
If I had to choose three words to describe my life for the past six months they would be sickness, death, and grief. It started in mid-October when my mother went to the hospital, and my brothers and I realized that her long life was coming to an end, and it...
“Be patient.” That’s an unusual to hear from scripture on this third Sunday of Advent, two short weeks before Christmas. When I think of qualities I need to have right now, patience is not the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, in the...