“Follow me.” Those are some rather stunning words to hear from Jesus. They’re also pretty familiar to us who go to church, so I want to invite you to listen to them anew, with the ears of your heart. And with the backstory in mind. “Follow me,” the resurrected one said.
Remember that, if you were Simon Peter, … Read the rest
Continue reading "The Invitation and the Imperative" »
What our church calls “the season after the Epiphany” comes to a conclusion this Sunday, and next Sunday we’ll enter into the deeply reflective season of Lent. This morning’s readings, in the spirit of all things Epiphany—whose season is all about the revealing of Christ’s identity—include two stories of awe-inspiring mountain events. One is about Moses’ encounter with … Read the rest
Continue reading "Transfiguration & Today" »
“Here I am, send me.” I’ll confess that it’s a bit uncomfortable being the person in the pulpit hearing and also saying those particular words. I mean, here I really am! In this somewhat visible location. If God’s about to call on someone, there’s no back row for me to hide in. But—spoiler alert—there’s no back row for … Read the rest
Continue reading "Here We Are" »
Happy Mother’s Day, to all of us who have mothers. Good mothers, stressed mothers, imperfect mothers, addicted mothers, angry mothers, surrogate mothers, loving mothers. All of them—and all of us—doing the best we are able to, with the help of God’s own motherly care.
Most of you know that my own son Aaron has been serving as Trinity’s … Read the rest
Continue reading "A Joy Complete" »
It was about this time last year, when I was on the search for air conditioned outings—as one does in the summer in Portland—that I found myself at the Pompeii exhibit at OMSI. Perhaps some of you visited it as well? It was a breathtaking installation, at once intimate and cosmic in scale. There were … Read the rest
Continue reading "Cloudy Insight" »“God made no distinction between them and us.” From our present standpoint it takes some effort to hear how very radical was Peter’s statement at what’s come to be known as the First Council of Jerusalem. But for Luke, who is also the author of Acts, this is the pivot point on which the story of Spirit-inspired expansion … Read the rest
Continue reading "Between Them and Us" »