I’ve confessed from this pulpit before that the Gospel of John has never been my favorite of the four Gospels. Mostly this is because the Jesus portrayed in John’s Gospel is just too certain for me. He is too all-knowing to be convincingly human. For this life-long Episcopalian, the incarnation...

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During the season of Advent, I have been using an Ignatian Spiritual exercise in which I imagine myself sitting alongside Elizabeth and Mary as we see them in the first chapter of Luke and getting to know them better. My spiritual director suggested this chapter from Luke to me because...

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Another week with John the Baptist. I think we can all agree that for us, citizens of the Western world in the 21st century, he is a strange and uncomprehensible figure. With his wild appearance, strange diet and apocalyptic words he is more than a little off-putting to us and...

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As most of you know, there is a wide range of thinking within Christianity about how to understand Scripture. Some Christians argue that every word is to be understood literally and followed to the letter. Other Christians argue that Scripture was inspired by God but written by humans and is...

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It is the late 12th century in central Italy, Assisi to be exact. Italy itself is not a united country but is made up of city-states of varying sizes and degrees of power, the largest and most powerful of which is the Papal city-state. Traditionally these various city-states had been...

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