By Debra Dean Murphy
- You Want It Darker by Debra Dean Murphy (12/6/2016)The Third Sunday of Advent Isaiah 35:1-10 (vv. 1-6a, 10 in Lectionary for Mass) Psalm 146:5-10 (vv. 6-10 in LM) James 5:7-10 Matthew 11:2-11 “They’re lining up the prisoners and the guards are taking aim.”
Leonard Cohen
A confession: I do not... - Don't Be Afraid by Debra Dean Murphy (4/26/2016)The Sixth Sunday of Easter Acts 16:9-15 (RCL); Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 (LM) Psalm 67 (RCL); Psalm 67:2-8 (LM) Revelation 21:10- 22:5 (RCL); Revelation 21:1014, 22-23 (LM) John 14:23-29
Holy Family Values by Debra Dean Murphy (12/22/2015)
Luke 2:41-52 First Sunday after Christmas Feast of the Holy Family I once lost my younger son in a department store. He was a toddler, chubby and unwieldy on his feet but, man, did he disappear in a flash. For the two or three minutes it took to find him (an eternity in such situations), my heart was in my throat. The dread was as unbearable as the relief was palpable when I finally found his impish, grinning self. This weekend offers something of a holiday smorgasbord liturgically: the First Sunday after Christmas, the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, the Commemoration of St. Stephen, and the Feast of the Holy Family. There is a wide array of readings and alternate readings, too. For c...- A Widow's Shame and Ours by Debra Dean Murphy (11/3/2015)
Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17 (RCL); I Kings 17:10-16 (LM) Psalm 127 or 42 (RCL); Psalm 146:7-10 (LM) Hebrews 9:24-38 Mark 12:38-44 For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her ...- Nativity Politics by Debra Dean Murphy (12/31/2014)
The Epiphany of the Lord Isaiah 60:1-6 Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12 Lectionary for Mass Welcome home, my child. Your home is a checkpoint now. Your home is a border town. Welcome to the brawl.- Rocking the Boat by Debra Dean Murphy (8/5/2014)
Proper 14A/Ordinary 19A/Pentecost +9 Genesis 37:1-4; Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b; Romans 10:5-15; Matthew 14:22-33 This week’s post is a reflection originally published in 2008. I’ve been following a blog debate over at www.theolog.org [ed. note - this blog is now part of http://www.- "Oh, Jesus Christ, Is It You Again?" by Debra Dean Murphy (6/25/2014)
Third Sunday After Pentecost Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Matthew 10:40-42 When I first began attending mass several years ago, I was struck by the kind of welcome I received. Or, rather, the kind I didn’t. Raised in the over-eager Protestantism that hovers and fawns over every guest at worship (a well-meaning practice; I’ve engaged in it myself), Catholics were noticeably cool, it seemed—a little distant, even. This wasn’t (and isn’t) calculating or conspiratorial on their part—nor on mine now as a Catholic. Any given group of parishioners at any given mass is not following a script about how to treat newcomers to the liturgy. And I don’t mean to suggest an...- What Is There To Say? by Debra Dean Murphy (4/15/2014)
Easter A John 20:1-18 (RCL); John 20:1-9 (Lectionary for Mass) You have to preach to those for whom the resurrection narrative is known inside and out, is loved and adored, is the sense-making story of their life in God, their life with others, their life in relation to all the world. What is there to say? You have to preach to those for whom the resurrection narrative is science fiction or harmful propaganda. They may be in church this day only to please a mother or grandmother. (There are worse things). They may smirk. They may sleep. They may pity your benighted ignorance. What is there to say? You have to preach to those who are curious but who would never le...- "Luminous Darkness" by Debra Dean Murphy (2/5/2014)
Epiphany 5A Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Matthew 5:13-16 Who among those who have read the gospels does not know that Christ has made all human suffering his own? On Sunday, when I read that Philip Seymour Hoffman had died, my breath caught a little. I didn’t know him, of course, though I’ve admired every performance of his I’ve seen. (Oh, the power of cinema to make us feel like we know the actors we love—indeed to make us love them in the first place.) Hoffman was an actor of astonishing intuition and virtuosity. As End Times by Debra Dean Murphy (11/26/2013)First Sunday of Advent Isaiah 2:1-5 Psalm 122 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44 The story of the end, of the last word of the end, when told, is a story that never ends.From Mark Strand’s “The Seven Last Words”
- The Hell of Loneliness by Debra Dean Murphy (9/26/2013)
Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost 1 Timothy 6:6-19 Luke 16:19-31 This week’s texts present the preacher with a dilemma that is perhaps all too common: How to find new life in old words: familiar admonitions in the Epistle lesson, a well-known parable in the Gospel of Luke. Preoccupied with the problem that money presents for kingdom living, Luke begins this week’s story as he did last week’s: “There was a rich man.” The tradition has named him “Dives” (Latin for “rich man,” first used by St. Jero...- The Happiness Market by Debra Dean Murphy (7/30/2013)
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 When I was a child, the adult members of Pittsburgh society adverted to the Bible unreasonably often. What arcana! Why did they spread this scandalous document before our eyes? If they had read it, I thought, they would have hid it. They did not recognize the lively danger that we would, through repeated expo...- Ascension and Embrace by Debra Dean Murphy (5/9/2013)
The Feast of the Ascension Acts 1:1-11 Psalm 47 Ephesians 1:15-23 Luke 24: 44-53 Nor doth he by ascending show alone, But first He, and He first enters the way.John Donne, A Healing Word by Debra Dean Murphy (2/20/2013)
Second Sunday in Lent, Year C Revised Common Lectionary: Lectionary for Mass: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 Psalm 27 Psalm 27 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Philippians 3:17-4:1 (or 3:20-4:1) Luke 13:31-35 or Luke 9:28-36 Luke 9:28-36 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?Psalm 27:1
The gospel reading for the Second Sunday in Lent differs significantly for Protestants and Catholics. The Revise...- This is Good News? by Debra Dean Murphy (12/12/2012)
The Third Sunday of Advent Zephaniah 3:14-20 Philippians 4:4-7 Isaiah 12:2-6 Luke 3:7-18 Gaudete in domini semper. These words from this week's lectionary epistle are also the text of the introit of the mass for the third Sunday of Advent. Thus on Gaudete Sunday, when Advent's sober mood is broken a little and t...- Why World Communion Sunday Is a Bad Idea by Debra Dean Murphy (10/2/2012)
The origins of this Protestant observance reveal the best of intentions. But for at least three reasons, continuing to set aside the first Sunday in October to highlight the Church's signature rite is not a good idea. One: Observing something called “World Communion Sunday” one day of the year communicates the idea that the Eucharist is special. But if Holy Communion really is the Church's signature rite, if it is indeed that which makes the Church what it is, then "special" is exactly what it is not. We don't think of the air we breathe as "special," the breakfast we eat as "special." These things are gifts, of course--breath and food--but it is in their given...- The Shepherd Who Feeds Us by Debra Dean Murphy (7/17/2012)
Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 23: Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34; 53-56 Eighth Sunday After Pentecost Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time There is striking beauty in the appointed texts for this weekend. And there are shepherds. And the shepherds are beautiful. ...- Assembling in the Spirit by Debra Dean Murphy (5/23/2012)
Pentecost Acts 2:1-21 “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.” Acts 2:1 [image]I was going to title this post “The Summer of Our Discontent.” For various denominational bodies, late spring and early summer are seasons for gathering “all together in one place.” United Methodists conference together, Episcopalians and Baptists convene, and Presbyterians generally assemble (or assemble generally). Long-time participants in these gatherings and others like them might say, with a cyn...- Anger in Church by Debra Dean Murphy (3/7/2012)
[image]Third Sunday in Lent"The gesture in the temple is all the more poignant and prophetic when we imagine it executed by a man too slight to carry his own cross without assistance, a man whose idea of a workout is a forty-day fast."Garret Keizer, Living in a Material World: Lent and Our Bodies by Debra Dean Murphy (2/22/2012)
Remember you are soil, and to soil you shall return. Gen. 3:19 The language of “spiritual journey” is commonplace in describing the season of Lent–the 40-day pilgrimage Christians undertake as they trek with Jesus from the wilderness to the garden to the garbage heap of Golgotha and beyond. [image]"Spiritual” in this context, as in almost every other, is so vague as to be not merely unhelpful but an actual obstacle to understanding what it is that Lent through the centuries has called Christians to. Generally, “spiritual” is meant to signal a concern with matters of the heart or the soul or the deepest self. More pointedly, it almost always springs from–even as it continu...- The Logic of the Incarnation by Debra Dean Murphy (12/20/2011)
Christmas Luke 2:1-14; John 1:1-14 “The Ancient of Days has become an infant.” John Chrysostom, 4th century On Christmas Eve we read Luke’s dramatic account of the birth of Jesus. On the first Sunday of Christmas (or, as it happens this year, Christmas Day) we read the prologue from John’s gospel. At first glance these texts seem to offer two very different perspectives on the coming of Christ into our world: Luke’s is earthy and political, conveying the historical contingencies (and palpable dangers) that attended the first Advent; John’...- It's About Us by Debra Dean Murphy (10/6/2011)
18th Sunday After Pentecost; 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14 Perhaps our response to Sunday’s lectionary gospel text ought to be Quaker-like silence. It’s Matthew, after all, so we are familiar with the uncompromising eschatology. But what to say? It’s a passage that contains one of the hard(est) sayings of Jesus: plenty of mystery but seemingly little grace.[image] In Matthew’s version of t...- The More You Get, the More You Have by Debra Dean Murphy (7/26/2011)
[image]Seventh Sunday After Pentecost Matthew 14:13-21 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Immediately before the story of the feeding of the five thousand is a description of a very different sort of meal: John the Baptizer’s head on a platter. And just as women and children are included among the multitude fed on the beach (a detail unique to Matthew’s version of the story), the ...- The Close-at-Hand God by Debra Dean Murphy (5/25/2011)
Sixth Sunday of Easter Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21 “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” John 14:20 For several weeks now the doomsday prophecy of one Harold Camping has been on the minds of many. First, it was the shared anticipation as the projected date got closer—and the requisite jokes about being left behind. Then it was the (no-surprise) failure of the prediction which resulted in . . . more jokes about being left behind. Attempts to counter Camping’s misguided views consisted mostly of pointing to passages in the New Testament which speak to the unknowability of the “day or hour” of the Lord’s return. But such proof-texting did little to challenge the core flaw of rapture theology—its f...- Snorting at Death by Debra Dean Murphy (4/7/2011)
Fifth Sunday in Lent Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:1-11; John 11:1-45 The texts for this Sunday leave no doubt about where the Lenten journey will end. A week before Palm/Passion Sunday and the start of Holy Week and it’s not the scent of spring flowers in the air but death--as shrouded, four-days-dead Lazarus is stinking up the place. Dry bones are on Ezekiel’s mind—brittle, rattling...- The Economics of Anxiety by Debra Dean Murphy (2/24/2011)
Eighth Sunday After Epiphany Isaiah 49:8-16; Psalm 131; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34 One of the steadfast realities of following the lectionary is the predictable rhythm of its three-year cycle of readings. Preparing a sermon for Baptism of the Lord Sunday in 2011? You might go back to your files from 2008 to see what text(s) you focused on, what themes prevailed, what prayers and hymns were chosen for worship. You might—depending on your congregation’s current needs and challenges—revisit, rework, recycle, as it were, the riches of the lectionary cycle. But because Eas...- Advent Outdoors by Debra Dean Murphy (12/9/2010)
Third Sunday of Advent Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146: 5-10 or Luke 1:47-55; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11 The haunt of jackals...- Learning, Knowing, Doing, Being by Debra Dean Murphy (10/15/2010)
Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost Psalm 119:97-104; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8 Last week the Pew Research Center made big...- What Are You Afraid Of? by Debra Dean Murphy (8/4/2010)
Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Luke 12:32-40 The gospel writer, Luke, has a habit of prefacing good news with the exhortation “Do not be afraid.” This seems a bit odd since we’re more likely to think that it’s the delivery of bad- Wrath and Mercy, Law and Grace by Debra Dean Murphy (6/8/2010)
Third Sunday After Pentecost – 13 June 2010 1 Kings 21:1-21a; Psalm 5:1-8; Galatians 2:15-21; Luke 7:36-8:3 (Revised Common Lectionary) The readings for this Sunday, taken all ...- Ascension Sunday by Debra Dean Murphy (5/12/2010)
Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53 St. Augustine considered the Feast of the Ascension the crown of all Christian festivals. Today we may give it an obligatory nod as we ...- Seventh Sunday of Easter by Debra Dean Murphy (5/12/2010)
John 17:20-26 [Two lectionary posts this week: one for the Seventh Sunday of Easter and one for Ascension Sunday (reposted from May 2009)] "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one." (John 17:20-21a). It seems there’s not much talk o...- Grounded Hope by Debra Dean Murphy (4/2/2010)
Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24; John 20:1-18 Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” (John 20:15) Let us not mock God with metap...- The Whole Package by Debra Dean Murphy (12/31/2009)
Second Sunday After Christmas Ephesians 1:3-19; John 1:1-18 It’s still Christmas. It’s hard to tell that from the culture around us, and maybe even a little hard to tell from this Sunday’s appointed lessons. For a few days we were immersed in the earthiness of the Nativity (barn animals, labor and delivery, a feeding trough for a bed). But this week’s readings have phrases like “before the foundation of the world,” “the mystery of his will,” and “in the beginning was the Word.” It’s tempting, perhaps, to see a sharp division here. To imagine that the Christmas lections are about the simple, familiar, child-friendly stuff—cradles and crèches...- Religious But Not Spiritual by Debra Dean Murphy (11/11/2009)
[image] Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18), 19-25 Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together..." ...- Kids in Church by Debra Dean Murphy (9/16/2009)
[image] Mark 9:30-37 (Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost) Images of Jesus embracing cherub-faced children have been irresistible throughout the centuries. Sentimental art within the last hundred years or so has given us the “sweet Victorian Nanny Jesus” (Philip Yancey’s memorable description), patting boys and girl...- Sex in Public by Debra Dean Murphy (7/21/2009)
[image]2 Samuel 11:1-15 (Eighth Sunday After Pentecost) “So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.” For the next two Sundays, churches that follow the Revised Common Lectionary will hear the familiar story of...- The Hemorrhaging Woman by Debra Dean Murphy (6/24/2009)
[image] Mark 5:21-43 (Fourth Sunday After Pentecost) (Image: Holy Spirit Dance, Gwen Meharg, watercolor.) When we read the story of Jesus healing the hemorrhaging woman (or a leper or ...- The Trinity and THE SHACK by Debra Dean Murphy (6/1/2009)
[image] If you are a savvy and astute reader of Trinitarian theology who can elucidate the fine distinctions between, say, Augustine and Origen or Moltmann and Marshall or Zizioulas and LaCugna, you may or may not be up on the latest (actually, the only) treatise on the Trinity to capture the popular imagination: a little self-published tome called ...- Ascension Politics by Debra Dean Murphy (5/19/2009)
[image]Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53 (The Feast of the Ascension) St. Augustine considered the Feast of the Ascension the crown of all Christian festivals. Today we may give it an obligatory nod as we make our way liturgically from Easter to Pentecost, but we’re often not quite sure what to do with it theologically, pastorally, exegetically. The clunky lit...- America's Bible by Debra Dean Murphy (5/12/2009)
[image]by Debra Dean Murphy It's a little surprising that it took this long but here it is, The American Patriot's Bible, t...- The Good Shepherd by Debra Dean Murphy (5/2/2009)
Psalm 23; 1 John 3:1-24; John 10:11-18 (Fourth Sunday of Easter) One problem with the many references to sheep in the Bible is that so few of us have any real contact with these animals. The metaphor is simply lost on us. What does it mean to be compared to sheep? The little we’ve heard or read about them—that they’re not particularly bright—does not endear us to the metaphor. But here’s the thing about Good Shepherd Sunday: it’s not about sheep at all. It is about a shepherd—the "Good Shepherd"—but even that designation is charged with meanings that can be lost on us. “I am the good shepherd,” says Jesus. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). The life of a shepherd w...- Resurrection and Torture by Debra Dean Murphy (4/21/2009)
[image]Luke 24:36b-48 (Third Sunday of Easter) "Torture may be considered a kind of perverse liturgy, for in torture the body of the victim is the ritual site where the state's power is manifested in its most awesome form." - William T. Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist...- Flunking Lent by Debra Dean Murphy (3/23/2009)
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-12; John 12:20-33 (Fifth Sunday in Lent) "I have flunked Lent. I flunk it every year." Fleming Rutledge writes these words in one of her many fine Holy Week sermons. But they're my words, too, this week, and perhaps yours also. We've flunked Lent. We always do. But this is not the bad news it may at first appear to be. When we set out on Ash Wednesday every year to observe a holy Lent, we pray Psalm 51 together, asking for mercy and cleansing, for wisdom, for an erasing of the record that stands against us—a blotting out of our iniquities. We pray that God will "create in us a clean heart and put a new and...- For God So Loved the World by Debra Dean Murphy (3/19/2009)
Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:13-21 (Fourth Sunday in Lent) With a group of friends, I'm reading a new book entitled Why Go to Church? The Drama of the Eucharist. Written by a Roman Catholic priest--Dominican and Englishman Timothy Radcliffe--and commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury as his Lent Book for 2009, this text is interesting reading for us American Methodists in the suburban south. In a chapter on preaching (the book takes in the whole of Word and Table), Radcliffe warns against taming the Bible's strangeness in the Sunday sermon. "The beauty of the Bible," he says, "is that it is not clear, simple and unambiguous. Its words are puzzling, intriguing and slippery." He could have been talking about the appointed texts fo...- Psalms for the Journey by Debra Dean Murphy (2/26/2009)
You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy . . . Psalm 16:11 It is fitting that we read, pray, and sing the Psalms during Lent—this season of the church year when we experience the full gamut of human emotions: sadness, doubt, confusion, rage, praise, thanksgiving, joy. The Psalms convey all of these emotions and more, and thus they place front and center something often lacking in our common discourse: honest speech. In their grappling with loss and abandonment, fear and pain, and in their ecstatic surrender to worship, praise, and adoration, the Psalms—the lamenting ones, the cursing ones, and the praising ones—help us to speak truthfully before God and one another. Not for nothing, the Psalms have bee...- Light for the Journey by Debra Dean Murphy (2/18/2009)
Transfiguration Sunday - Mark 9:2-9 The Gospel Lesson for Transfiguration Sunday suffers from something that lectionary texts often do: It begins in the middle of a longer narrative, the whole of which helps to situate and make sense of the lifted-out passage under consideration. The Mark reading begins with: "Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves." We then go on to get engrossed in the familiar story of how the appearance of Jesus changes; how Moses and Elijah suddenly show up; how Peter characteristically misreads the scene. But what happened six days earlier? Could it have any bearing on the journey to the mountaintop and on what transpired there?by Debra Dean Murphy (1/19/2009)Today as we commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it's easy to forget how despised King was in his own time by many on the right and the left, by many within the church and outside it. As the frequency of his public speeches increased toward the end of his life so did his visible rage; as his preaching evolved in the last years, he moved from what Richard Lischer has called a “homiletics of identification” to a “homiletics of confrontation.” The radical politics of the Kingdom that King envisioned—for the church and the nation—did not endear him to either; it got him killed. As author Heaven and Earth by Debra Dean Murphy (1/13/2009)Second Sunday After the Epiphany: 1 Samuel 3:1-20; Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51 Each year on the second Sunday after the Epiphany, the lectionary steers us away from the Synoptics, where we have been immersed in birth narratives, visiting magi, and the baptism of Jesus, and into the first part of John’s gospel, which contains none of these historical particulars. But the Johannine detour is significant for Epiphany, for these texts deal with the revelation of Jesus to Israel and to the world, making the claim that this One from Nazareth (“can anything good come from there?”) is the eternal Logos, Word made flesh, whose glory we have beheld. It is the calling of the disciples that preoccupies the...- Amahl and the Night Visitors by Debra Dean Murphy (1/5/2009)
O Woman, you may keep the gold; the child we seek doesn't need our gold. On love, on love alone he will build his kingdom. His pierced hand will hold no scepter; his haloed head will wear no crown. His might will not be built on your toil. Swifter than lightning he will soon walk among us; he will bring us new life, and receive our death. And the keys to his city belong to the poor. "Amahl and the Night Visitors" Gian-Carlo Menotti, 1950 In 1950 the National Broadcasting Corporation commissioned Italian composer Gian-Carlo Menotti to write an opera for live broadcast on the fledgling, new medium of television. On Christmas Eve of the following year, Amahl and the Night Visitors premiered on NBC.<...- Hope by Debra Dean Murphy (1/2/2009)
When I was in the fourth grade my teacher, Mr. VanNostran, asked us to write our own definition of the word “hope.” I don’t remember the occasion or the context for the assignment; I don’t even remember what I wrote. But I do remember that a few days later, Mr. Van (as we called him) read aloud another student’s definition. The boy, whose name was Paul, was absent that day, and Mr. Van took the opportunity, I think, to teach the rest of us something about ourselves, something about the world, and something about the word “hope.” Paul was a nice kid—he was quiet and he was poor. Living as we did in rural West Virginia, none of us in that class of fourth graders came from wealthy families. Most of us came from similar economic backgrounds. We were all of modest means—some a lit...- Camel Hair and the Christ Child by Debra Dean Murphy (12/8/2008)
[image]Third Sunday of Advent: Isaiah 61:1-4, 9-11; Psalm 126; I Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8; 19-28 Sometimes the contrasts are jarring: sweet-faced children singing about cradles and crèches on the same Sunday that we hear about leather belts, locusts and wild honey. It’s early December and we’re already at the manger (the tidy...- Cynical/Dreams by Debra Dean Murphy (11/6/2008)
[image]It’s hard to be cynical today. It may be easier tomorrow, next week, or next month—it almost certainly will be. But today is a day for head-shaking wonder at what transpired on Nov. 4. Even though it wasn’t a surprise, the election of Barack Obama is epic for all the reasons the pundits have waxed eloquent about during the last twenty-four hours, and the margin of his vi...- Wisdom and Folly by Debra Dean Murphy (11/4/2008)
[image]1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Matthew 25:1-13 (32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time) At first glance the gospel lesson this week seems to encourage the kind of smug dualism that has characterized t...- No Small Change by Debra Dean Murphy (10/14/2008)
[image]I Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22 (23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time) One of the grim realities of the financial markets meltdown is the loss in trillions of dollars in retirement accounts like 401(k)s. It's no small matter that many people close to retirement may be in quite a fix. And it seems reasonable to ask, if such a vast sum is indeed lost, can't som...- Raging and Rejoicing by Debra Dean Murphy (10/9/2008)
[image]Exodus 32:1-14; Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23; Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14 (The 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time) The lessons this week have us thinking about anger: God's and, more obliquely, our own. In the Exodus passage, Moses has to talk down an irrational Yehweh, lest divine rage obliterate the wayward Israelites. In Matthew's parable of the wedding banquet, an equally unreas...- Law, Economy, Freedom and Community by Debra Dean Murphy (9/30/2008)
[image]Exodus 20:1-20 There's a running gag on Comedy Central's Colbert Report in which the fake-bluster, windbag host, Stephen Colbert, interviews members of Congress in a segment...- God’s Economy by Debra Dean Murphy (9/24/2008)
[image]Philippians 2:1-13 There’s nothing like money troubles—ours or someone else’s—to get our attention and hold it. To keep us up at night. To preoccupy our days and overtake all our social interactions. In fact, if you want to break the ice with a new acquaintance or fill that awkward silence with a stranger in a waiting room, on the bus, wherever—...- Workers’ Rights and the Kingdom of Heaven by Debra Dean Murphy (9/18/2008)
[image]Philippians 1:21-30; Matthew 20:1-16 “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:15-16 Some say that human beings are hardwired with a strong sense of what’s fair and what’s not. Maybe. But even if it’s not part of our DNA, it seems pre...- 70 x 7 and 9/11 by Debra Dean Murphy (9/12/2008)
[image]Forgive your neighbor the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when you pray. (Sirach 28:2) Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, bu...- Love and Power by Debra Dean Murphy (9/5/2008)
[image]Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20 I’m a political junkie. And like many addicts, I’ve been bingeing lately, and I’m not proud of it. I know better (as most junkies do), but I can’t seem to help myself. Two weeks of convention hoopla—spin and jive, sentiment and spectacle, smugness and sarcasm—have left me more hopeless than ever about the state of political discourse in the ...- Immigration and the Hebrew Midwives by Debra Dean Murphy (8/23/2008)
[image]Exodus 1:8-2:10; Matthew 16:13-20 "For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other." - Thomas Paine, 1776 “But the midwives feared God; they did not do as...- Immigration and the Crumbs from Our Table by Debra Dean Murphy (8/18/2008)
[image]"You speak of signs and wonders / I need something other / I would believe if I was able / But I’m waiting on the crumbs from your table. (“Crumbs From Your Table,” U2, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb) It’s become something of a tradition: I start a conversation via email with a large distribution list I have, made up mostly of fellow church members but also including some far-flung friends and colleagues. Often, I share my bLOGOS reflections on the lectionary or make a plea for help with a proj...- Rocking the Boat by Debra Dean Murphy (8/8/2008)
[image]I’ve been following a blog debate over at www.theolog.org between a scientist of some sort, hostile to religion generally and Christianity particularly, and a pious defender of the faith. In my view, neither has been very impressive in articulating his case against the other, and the back-and...- Tasting Death, Tasting Life by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image](Matthew 14:13-21) Immediately before the story of the feeding of the five thousand is a description of a very different sort of meal: John the Baptizer’s head on a platter. And just as women and children are included among the crowds fed on the beach with bread and fish (a d...- Shrubs and Kingdoms by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs an...- Gathering Gifts by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]It’s been more than a week since the Gathering ended and my head is still swimming and my heart is still full. There is always so much to take in when we meet each summer for conversation, worship, learning, and fellowship. I traveled to Chicago this year with three good friends from my church—new endorsers of EP and first-time Gathering attendees. These friends—Judy, Chris, and Gr...- The Binding of Isaac: Gen. 22: 1-14 by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went, / And took the fire with him, and a knife. / And as they sojourned both of them together, / Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father, / Behold the preparations, fire and iron, / But where the lamb, for this burnt-offering? / Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps, / And builded parapets and trenches there, / And ...- The Making of Many Books by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]I oversee a book club in the church where I work. We haven’t come up with a name more descriptive or imaginative than “book club,” so many people assume we’re a lot like the stereotype: women who gather to discuss the latest Oprah pick and drink lots of wine. We do drink wine and share a meal together every time we meet, but no Oprah books for us. And there are men in our gr...- Third Sunday After Pentecost by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]What does it mean, I wonder, to hear this week’s appointed scripture texts if you are a Christian in Myanmar or in the Sichuan province of China? What would you make of all this talk of mountains shaking; the sea roaring and foaming; swollen waters on the earth; rain, flood, wind, destruction, death? Those of us who have never experienced the kind of catastrophic devastation associated wi...- Strangers and Other Gifts by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]“Hospitality” is an overused word in our culture. We speak of the hospitality “industry,” a 3.5 trillion dollar service sector of the global economy. “Hospitality management” is now offered as a degree program in most colleges and universities. For many people, hospitality is exercised primarily as a form of social entertaining: magazines like Southern Living set impossible standards ...- Trinity Sunday by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]This Sunday is Trinity Sunday on the Christian calendar, the only feast day in the liturgical year devoted to a doctrine of the Church. Many on this day will be tempted to dust off the clumsy analogies: The Trinity is like a three-leaf clover. The Trinity is like the three phases of water—liquid, solid, steam. No wonder people in the pews often rebel against doctrinal sermons.by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)[image]Today is a beautiful spring day in central North Carolina. The summer heat and humidity that will oppress us for weeks on end is not yet upon us. Recent rains have made everything green and lush. The azaleas are past their prime but the camellias are in top form. It’s a beautiful day. It’s also the day that voters go to the polls to decide local, state, and national pri...- Benedict and Jeremiah by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]Two very public, very controversial religious leaders have addressed the nation in as many weeks and the differences between them couldn’t be more striking. Pope Benedict, during his stateside visit earlier this month, spoke the truth about American Catholicism with equal parts commendation and critique. His humility and shy grace were evident in his speeches and sermons and ...- Prayer Pet Peeves by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]Working, as I do, in low-church Methodism in the South, I’m called upon regularly, in a variety of contexts, to offer extemporaneous prayers. I also frequently hear others—both clergy and laity— pray “on the fly.” ...- Suffering and Abundance by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]“When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:4). Any time sheep are mentioned in the Bible people sometimes go a little soft in the head, inflicting a nurse...- The Road to Exile by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]It isn’t likely that the text from 1 Peter will take center stage in many sermons this Sunday, but in thinking through all of the day’s appointed readings—their particular concerns and their possible associations, it’s not a bad plac...- Do You Believe in the Resurrection? by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]There were doubt and struggle on that first Easter morning and in the days and weeks that followed. But doubt and struggle were not obstacles to faith; they were its necessary precondition. Throughout history and into our own ...- The Violence of Love by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]Easter Monday marked the anniversary of the death of Archbishop Oscar Romero, murdered while celebrating the Eucharist at the chapel of Divine Providence Cancer Hospital in San Salvador on March 24, 1980. We should not wonder that a church has a lot of cross to bear....- The Face of Race by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]At the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Chri...
- Come and See by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
Third Sunday in Lent - John 4:5-42 Interpreters of this lengthy passage are usually quick to point out the “three strikes” against the woman at the well: her gender, her ethnicity, and her dubious marital status. And despite the fact that she engages Jesus in the longest conversation he has with anyone in the gospels, friend or foe; that she can hold her own in a theological debate; that she is the first person Jesus reveals himself to in John’s gospel; that she is the first evangelist and her testimony brings many to faith; despite all of this—what the Samaritan woman is most remembered for, it seems, is that she had five husbands. But what are the particular circumstances? Deaths? Divorces? Promiscuity? We do not know. All we know is that J...- Mardi Gras by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)
[image]Mardi Gras. The phrase conjures images of drunken revelry and riotous carnality, tempered with a little voodoo carnivàle. Associated as it is with that most sensual of American cities, New Orleans (at least until Katrina and its aftermath changed the city and our perception of it forever), “Fat Tuesday” seems the antithesis of anything holy or sacred. Looking Toward Lent by Debra Dean Murphy (8/1/2008)When we take too much pride in “family churches,” where neat, nuclear families dominate, we risk forgetting what Jesus did on Good Friday. “Family churches,” for all their honoring of family life, may limit the much wider embrace of God’s grace. Some priorities valued in family churches can be hostile to individuals who do not fit middle-class paradigms. They can exclude people Jesus would want us to welcome. The world consists of many persons who have had to take different and often painful roads. The true community Jesus seeks makes space for them all. — Peter Storey, Listening at Golgotha It is not uncommon in a lot of churches, perhaps rural ones especially, for a particular family to be a dominant force in the life of the congregation. The family may be founding members of...- Eating Locally by Debra Dean Murphy (5/1/2008)
I recently finished reading Barbara Kingsolver’s new book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, a captivating story of her family’s efforts to eat locally for an entire year. From one spring to the next, everything they consumed was either grown in their own modest garden or purchased from farmers’ markets or dairies or butchers in their rural county in southwest Virginia (though they did make a few exceptions for staples like olive oil, spices, and fair trade organic coffee). This is the kind of book that could get all preachy and high-minded, making the reader feel bad for being such a promiscuous eater, but Kingsolver is too good a writer for that. She simply chronicles her family’s triumphs and failures; their joys and frustrations. As she puts it, this is the story of w... - A Widow's Shame and Ours by Debra Dean Murphy (11/3/2015)
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