Warmth of the saints
All Saints Sunday Jesus gets there too late. He gets to Lazarus too late. “Lord,” Mary says—this is Lazarus’s sister Mary—she says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother…
Book of the Bible: John
Love, in crumbs and fragments
There’s a passage in a novel that I think about when I preach these days. It’s from Marilynne Robinson’s book, Lila. The main character says to the preacher, she says:…
That we may see and believe
In our story from John’s Gospel, the people find Jesus in Capernaum, and they’re trying to figure out what this Jesus is all about—what it would mean to believe in…
Pentecost: Oscar Romero
Day of Pentecost On Pentecost we pay attention to the mystery of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God poured out from heaven: God’s spirit alive in us, alive in…
Uprooted and Sent
Seventh Sunday of Easter My favorite yoga pose is the tree pose. I love the experience of shifting my weight to one leg, finding a center, imagining my foot sending…
You Are Mine: Love as Ownership
Today is Mother’s Day, and when I got assigned to preach on this day, I was a bit anxious. I grew up in a non-denominational, evangelical, church, and so I…
Vines, Eunuchs, and Love
Fifth Sunday of Easter Listen again to 1 John 4:16, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” And hear again…
Seeing and Following Jesus
Introduction This evening, I would like to look mainly at the lectionary reading from John and share with you some of my thoughts. I do not plan to examine every…
Attention
In our psalm today, we hear of how intimately God knows us. At first the psalmist describes God as knowing our day-to-day activities: sitting, standing, walking, lying down, and speaking.…
In the middle
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is the season to talk about beginnings. The new year. The end…