I like how safe words are. I like how words string together and make puzzles, and how those puzzles can be untangled if you can link the words together in particular ways. I like how words and math are so close to each other, logical magic that obeys certain rules. If you say things properly, with the right flick of your wand (winGARdium leviOsa!), there will be a consistent result. This is always why I loved the Bible. I want to... Read more
I’m taking a break from writing this Lent, while I go on pilgrimage on the Way of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy! I head out tomorrow and will be back writing on Patheos and my personal blog after Easter. I’m so excited to share with you all about my time in Italy when I get back, and so excited to take a break from social media and online spaces to spend some time in my body in the world.... Read more
Now about eight days after these sayings, Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Luke 9:28-29 Gospel for Transfiguration Sunday Transfiguration Sunday is neither a fast nor a feast but something bizarre, something very large and uncontainable. We are at the last week of Ordinary Time until June, and the least possible Ordinary... Read more
They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. Jeremiah 17:8 The children of the evangelical movement are tired. We’re burnt out by church and “small groups” and hip tattoos, with sold-out stadiums and Christian “influences,” with sermons that are riddled with cliches... Read more
Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. Luke 5:10 Lectionary Gospel text for February 10th, 2019 My coworker at the bar forgot to finish their side-work again and I am raging mad. Maybe this sounds like an overreaction. I’m sure it was. But working in close quarters with the same dozen people for 40 hours a week... Read more
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. Luke 4:21-30 This week in the lectionary, Jesus almost gets thrown off the mountain by an angry mob who wasn’t pleased with his preaching. Jesus shows up at his local synagogue, and everyone is delighted that the hometown boy has made good, and eagerly awaits special favors from the son of Joseph. He’s from here! We’re “his people”! His miracles here will be even more magnificent than everywhere else!... Read more
We’re in the “season after Epiphany,” an in-between moment of Ordinary Time after the feast of Epiphany and before Lent. It’s Ordinary Time – but maybe with a tad more celebration. In this celebratory Ordinary Time blip, Jesus publicly announces in the synagogue that he’s the Messiah, and what his vocation means to the world. Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began... Read more
They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. Psalm 36:8, for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany “I have run out, and it is my fault, and I ruined this wedding.” I wonder if anyone at the wedding at Cana was about to get in trouble for not stocking enough wine for the party. Maybe the father of the bride, a well-meaning uncle, a hired ancient wedding planner, or... Read more
But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. Isaiah 43:1 Luke takes his sweet time getting to the baptism of Jesus. Matthew and Mark move swiftly to the beginning of Christ’s ministry, but Luke meanders. He tells us about Jesus’ parents, and Mary sings a song, and then Jesus’ aunty Elizabeth sings a... Read more
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem. Matthew 2:1 I was the nerdy kid at the justice conference sticking out like a sore thumb. It was a conference of activists , and at the time, I was just a kid who wanted to get a PhD and nerd out over old texts in dusty libraries. But in the front row of the breakout session, the session... Read more
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