Over the two and a half decades that I have served parishes as an ordained person, I have had the privilege of being with many people at the end of their lives. I have seen people die suddenly whose family and friends were completely unprepared for their death. And I have been with people who […]
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Yes, indeed, I am going to preach a sermon focusing on that passage. I guess I like to do things the hard way. Or, probably more accurately, any sermon I […]
What does a Christian Community look like? Today I am not going to give a sermon, but instead lead a discussion, or a Bible study. I want us to look very closely at our readings from Acts for today and since it is a passage about Christian community, I think that it is important that […]
Today we are celebrating Earth Day here at St. Andrew’s. Every year when Earth Day arrives, I think the same thing, “How typical of us humans to celebrate the planet that allows for our very existence only one day a year. Every day should be earth day. Perhaps we wouldn’t be in the planetary emergency […]
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” I think that forgiveness is talked about more in the Bible than any other topic. Maybe love is talked about more, but then again love and forgiveness are inextricably linked […]
My Easter Sunday sermon is one that I both look forward to writing with great anticipation and that I dread as well. I look forward to writing and preaching it because Easter is the most important day of the year for Christians. It is the day on which we celebrate that event that is the […]
It is Maundy Thursday. During the season of Lent, we have walked with Jesus from his temptation in the wilderness, through healings, teaching, preaching, and many challenges to the established order. He has consistently and continuously challenged the power of the world—power over, violence, exclusion, hoarding of resources, dominance, and the like, and shown that […]
It is approximately 30 CE, though we wouldn’t call it that because we keep a different calendar. And who am I? I am Hannah. I am the wife of a blacksmith. We live just outside of the city of Jerusalem. I am fortunate. I have reached the age of 50. My what an ancient age […]
You will not find many Bible study groups doing a study of the Book of Ezekiel. The book is difficult and disturbing. The prophet acts in bizarre ways, and God is often cold and calculating. God commands Ezekiel to do strange things. The book of Ezekiel uses imagery and theological ideas that are often disturbing […]
A man who was born blind in a world in which there is little space for him, sits day by day in the public square begging for others’ leftovers so that he can survive. When others see him all they can see is his unseeing eyes and they feel afraid, for they know in their […]