Lent
Invitation to Renewal
A beautiful red cardinal landed under a nearby shrub as I was hustling the kids out the door to school one morning this winter. It only registered with me a few hours later that I‘d seen this
...Wilderness
The wilderness can take many shapes. Maybe it’s the challenges of home, family and work. Or perhaps it’s illness, be it physical or mental, our own or those we love.
Or perhaps it’s the
...Welcoming Home Love
Christ’s welcoming home love – what a gift we have been given!
What do we do as individuals and communities, as we become aware of Christ’s welcoming-home-love? What do we do as we come
...Skipping With Joy
One of my fellow pastors here in the Hudson Conference of the Metropolitan New York Synod, Pastor Paul Britton, recently told us a story about a young boy receiving Holy Communion for the first
...At the Center
Little is known about the Prophet Joel, who probably wrote these words that we heard in our first lesson tonight around 586BC. Yet with bold - even challenging - language for our modern ears to
...We Are Not In Control
I think that when things get overwhelming in life and the world, there is a three-prong approach that can be helpful for us to utilize. First, we need to give ourselves and those around us room
...Warring Visions
We are called to build a prophetic Church for an all too often warring world.
Yes! We are called to be prophets and peacemakers and to lift before the world a vision of what could be
...Hard News, Practical Wisdom, and Hope
Today’s gospel lesson starts with some hard news, then shares practical wisdom, and finally a larger than average dose of hope.
Folks are gathered around Jesus – there was just something
...There is Room at God’s Table
Today’s gospel lesson is one of parables from Jesus shared most often. Sometimes called the Parable of the Prodigal Son (placing our focus with the younger son who goes off to waste his portion
...Bodies and Buildings
Today I want to invite us to think about our bodies and buildings, especially our corporeal, or physical bodies and our church buildings. And I want us to think about change. Most of all I want
...Ash Wednesday 2023
There is something I enjoy about shredding paper. I know, that might sound funny or little odd. I don’t know whether it’s the repetitive action leading to a sense of accomplishment when a pile of
...Grace, Not Condemnation
Lent is a forty-day long journey of remembering that we bask in grace, not condemnation. Grace, not condemnation. Grace, made possible by God in Jesus in a way that seeks to change our lives,
...Born Anew, Sent to be a Blessing
(Get youth volunteers to pass bowls of water for a remembrance of baptism. Dip them in font and carry them out to folks, inviting them to make the sign of the cross on their foreheads)
Do
...Healing and Calling!
How many times in a day are any of us interrupted? By alarms that wake us up and start the day, by the sounds of our phones going off for text messages, social media alerts, or even old-fashioned
...Quantum Computers, Grandparents, and a Resurrected Life
This month’s Christian Century magazine includes a story of twelve-year old Julian, who told her father, a pastor, that “she couldn’t go forward with confirmation because she wasn’t sure she
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