Do you remember the song “From a Distance” sung by Bette Midler in the early 1990’s? “From a distance, the world looks blue and green And the snow-capped mountains white From a distance, the ocean meets the stream And the eagle takes to flight From a distance, there is harmony And it echoes through the […]

Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. I could repeat this verse from Psalm 85 all day long, the words are that beautiful to me. Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed […]

As I read our readings from Isaiah and Mark for today, I was struck by the fact that the authors of both were addressing grieving communities. Both passages of Scripture were written to people who were living through a time of great chaos, social upheaval, and pain. Both were written to communities who were experiencing […]

The God I know through the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures is a God who desperately wants to get our attention. This God that our ancestors in the faith wrote about in our sacred writings is not a God who is distant or uncaring. The Divine one portrayed in the pages of our Bible is passionately […]

Last week we heard the story of John the Baptist appearing in the desert to proclaim repentance and announce the coming of the Messiah. I have always admired this portrait of John the Baptist. He is courageous and fiery. He is as “prophety” as you can get. He’s a prophet’s prophet you might say. But […]