By John Jay Alvaro

• Seek and you shall... by John Jay Alvaro (1/15/2014)
  ...-- First Psalm 40. This is one of those lovely/troubling imprecatory psalms. "Imprecatory" means "to curse or pray evil upon another," a definition which makes these passages difficult to preach. In 1983, U2 wrote their <em>War </em>album. On the last night of recording, they were about to be run off by the studio manager. They needed one more song, so they quickly wrote and recorded a song ba...
• King/Fool by John Jay Alvaro (11/21/2013)
  ...sus? This Sunday we recognize Christ as king. It is the end of the church year, bringing our story from Advent through Easter and all that ordinary time to a close. But there is nothing about the image of Christ as king that settles my stomach or makes sense of my expectations. Nothing about this coronation service feels like closure or victory. If Jesus is a king, then his followers are fo...
• Treading Silently Near Tender Hearts by John Jay Alvaro (7/25/2013)
  ...ng. Either I was supposed to feel like a well-loved slut or this book smelled like kitsch religious patriarchy repackaged in 1850's stereotypes. It has been so many years that I almost forgot the book existed, until I came across the readings for the Tenth Sunday After Pentecost (Year C). There we find Hosea's prologue staring at us, waiting for a response. I went back and revisited the amazon....
• "The regime...was just demolished...by...tears." by John Jay Alvaro (3/15/2013)
  ...ies, not for people who are trying to keep it all together. Yet this week's psalm is all weepy and emotional. The psalmist apparently has no regard for good manners or propriety. Psalm 126 reads like the interior of a manic person. Laughing, shouting, crying, shouting, weeping, shouts of joy. None of it is ignored, all of the emotions are part of the song, all honored. The psalm cares not...
• Darkness and Light, and My Son’s Need to Know Where the Bad People Go by John Jay Alvaro (1/2/2013)
  ...us on all sides. And these important pastors have been given access to thousands upon thousands of itching ears each week. They are the arbiters of right and wrong, light and dark, heaven and hell. So when something like a massive school shooting happens, they are armed to the teeth with explanations and remedies. It should have come as no surprise that the Newtown shooting would elicit such ...
• Home is Often a Troubled Place by John Jay Alvaro (10/24/2012)
  ...y were weeping.<!--more--> The return home is imaged in sadness. They are anxious travelers. They are totally vulnerable. The women are having babies beside the streams. The blind folks are still in darkness. The disabled still limp. So where is the good news in this situation? Is nothing here being made right? I suppose coming home is the praise-worthy event. But even that is a mixed bag. Home...
• Reading Around the text by John Jay Alvaro (8/15/2012)
  ...rds for women in worship. The Lectionary mitigates that risk, and a host of other dangerous tendencies, by laying out readings in coherent and thoughtful units. But sometimes the preacher must interrogate the given pericopes, always watching the edges for things that have fallen away. In the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, we encounter a cluster of texts that converge around the idea of Wisdo...