Reflections

Oct. 23, 2020 Long, too long America By Walt Whitman Long, too long America, Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn'd from joys and prosperity only, But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not, And now to conceive and…

Oct. 15, 2020 September came and went.  October is well underway.  Autumn is a time when congregational life – like much of the world around us – is normally marked by renewed energy and fresh beginnings: familiar worship schedules resume; choirs end their summer hiatus; church…

Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.       Amos 5:16a, 23-24; New Revised Standard…

July 26, 2020 Texts: Proper 12-A, Track 2: I Kings 3:5-12; Matthew 13:31-33,44-52 Today’s Gospel reading from Matthew [13:31-33,44-52] is a smorgasbord of mini-parables.  Most of them relate to obtaining some treasure or some prized commodity: leavened bread, hidden wealth, fine…

June 26, 2020 A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,      make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up,      and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level,     …

June 19, 2020 This week's reflection coincides with the Juneteenth holiday.  The observance and history of this day have not long been familiar to me.  I suspect that may be true for others. Juneteenth (a portmanteau blending "June" and "nineteenth") commemorates the day when, on June…

June 12, 2020 "In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; … For the time is coming when people will not put…

“A clinical researcher, a philanthropic strategist, a music teacher, a marketing manager, a monk, a clinical social worker, a registered nurse, a faith-based community organizer, and a public safety officer walk into a bar.”   It has become my tradition to begin diaconal ordinations with…

I seem to have missed it, all these years. The story of Pentecost Day [Acts 2:1-21] is as familiar as any in the Bible. I’ve read it, and told it, countless times.  Here’s this great, global gathering.  A crowd of people “from every nation under heaven,” says the text that every lector…