By Anna MacDonald Dobbs

• What Wishes Pentecost to Be? by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (5/12/2016)
  Pentecost Sunday Acts 2:1-21 Psalm 104:24-34 John 14:8-17 The UMC Lectionary Calendar suggests a framing question for Pentecost, which curiously doesn’t mention the Holy Spirit at all: What can you do to make Pentecost the day that you as a congregation witness about Jesus Christ to your neighbors who do not yet know his saving love? The question is not without merit, but it may be getting ahead of itself. Among the dangers in approaching Pentecost with a question that directs us to focus on what we do to a subset of other people is the assumption that we can identify the needy neighbor. Once you’ve pegged s...
• Identity Politics by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (2/10/2016)
  First Sunday in Lent Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Luke 4:1-13 This time of year, especially every fourth year, we find ourselves in the US of A faced with representatives of the powers and principalities of this world. They offer to order the nation around things we most want - psychological safety, economic security, access to “someone like me” brokering power - in exchange for allegiance symbolized by a vote. Some even cite Scripture (or attempt to) to make their case, ostensibly as a proxy for shared identity and...
• Make Peace by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (12/1/2015)
  Second Sunday of Advent Luke 1:68-79 Luke 3:1-6 I’d bet that many of you, like me, keep a to-do list or three to prepare for the Christmas season. It’s busy, with priority to any of the following in a given week: light stringing, card sending, cookie baking, tree decorating, gift shopping/wrapping/exchanging, party hosting, open house attending, feasting with friends/family/colleagues. There might even be a few extra church services on the calendar and a parade or two. In the second week of our liturgical season of preparation (Advent), Luke gives us opportunity to consider who we prepare for and the implications for Christians located in a consumer capitalist,...
• Truth Telling and Race in the “United” States by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (8/5/2015)
  Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Ephesians 4:25-5:2 Ephesians is written to the ekklesia, the gathering, a “new humanity” in which dividing walls are broken down through Christ’s submission-to/assumption-of the state’s bone-breaking violence in his own body. This passage advocates truth-telling for the upbuilding of Christian community so that we are transformed by and participate in God’s character revealed in Christ: self-sacrificing love for the sake of others. I offer a truth that is not new or of my own thought, but I believe it will continue to be a (perhaps, the) primary challenge for the church as it fleshes out this calling in this country at this time. The...
• What Is Love? by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (5/6/2015)
  Sixth Sunday of Easter John 15:9-17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another (15:17) Love, love, love. All you need is love. Warm fuzzies! What is this longing in our hearts for togetherness? Is it not the sweetest flower? Love! This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (15:12) Um. As I have loved you? No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (15:13). Ohhhhhhhh.That. John reminds us that the kind of love Christians are called to embody takes a particular, cruciform shape. Robin Maas offers insight, “Few, if any of us, will be called to martyrdom; but all of us are ca...
• Words by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (3/4/2015)
  Third Sunday in Lent Exodus 20:1-17 Psalm 19 John 2:13-22 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 I have an almost two year-old friend, Azalea, who is stringing sentences together into increasingly complex stories. A most recent tale that Azalea tells involves Muppet, her cat, sitting in Azalea’s yogurt. Said story is followed by a big little-girl grin, not only because she gets tickled recounting it, but also because she has learned that she can evoke a similar response in other people. She looks for her audience to understand and react to what she says, and she delights in it...
• In the Dark by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (1/14/2015)
  Second Sunday after Epiphany Second Sunday in Ordinary Time 1 Samuel 3:1-10 Psalm 139 It seems funny in the weeks following the dazzling brightness of Epiphany to reflect on/in darkness, but that’s where I’m headed. In part because it’s heavy in the text, but also because I’m hypersensitive to it. Something of a spiritual/emotional “darkness” has been hanging out with me as of late.* Were it possible, I’d rather slam the door in the face of darkness than spend time with/in it when it knocks. I don’t think I’m alone in that. We as individuals and communities typically want to bring light (flash, night, or flood) and all it represents - understanding, good...
• Party Prep by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (11/5/2014)
  Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Matthew 25:1-13 I am a female older sibling; I was an only child for exactly 2 years and 10 months of my life. It may come as no surprise to you, then, that I am Type A through and through. I am always early, always (over) prepared and embarrassed if I’m not. I flush easily. I plan ahead to very minute detail, and I appreciate external approval. I now would like for you to acknowledge, dear reader, my self-awareness about my neurotic tendencies (…and my self-awareness about asking for approval about my self-awareness. This is getting very meta.). Imagine reading the Gospel text this week about the Kingdom of Heaven from my perspective....
• Forgiven to Forgive by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (9/10/2014)
  Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost Matthew 18:21-35 American culture has bastardized forgiveness into a self-serving tool. For proof, look no further than the Mayo Clinic website or a personal favorite, wikiHow Comparable to its detailed instructions on how to train for a 5k or get rid of a pimple, Wiki provides a 12-step prescription on “How to Forgive,” complete with additional tips and warnings like “forgiveness is hard!” These sites, in addition to others of the self-help variety, commonly extol using forgiveness as a way to better your own physical and emotional heal...
• Life Together by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (6/10/2014)
  Trinity Sunday Genesis 1:1-2:4 Matthew 28:16-20 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 Read in concert, the lectionary passages selected for Trinity Sunday serve up a message that builds upon itself like a well-planned progressive dinner party. I’ve never had occasion to participate in one, but it sounds fun. You gather a group that travels together to eat at different homes for the evening. Various members are in charge of hosting a particular part of the meal. At the first stop, you enjoy appetizers and drinks, for example. The host at stop number two has prepared a main course, and stop number three features dessert. ...
• God and Graves by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (4/2/2014)
  Fifth Sunday in Lent Ezekiel 37:1-14 John 11:1-45 We’re nearing the end of Lent, a season that we Christians started by proclaiming our mortality and wearing a symbol of death on our foreheads. It seems appropriate, then, that we spend this last Sunday before Holy Week with God messing around in graves. Lazarus has died, despite the efforts of his two distraught sisters, Mary and Martha. The community in Bethany has come to sit shiva, when they hear that Jesus is on his way to the house. John tells us that Mary and Martha independently greet Jesus with the same statement, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” The underlying ...
• Whose You Are by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (1/21/2014)
  Third Sunday after Epiphany Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Matthew 4:12-23 While in Divinity school, I went on a travel seminar to the Middle East with thirty-nine other seminary students and lay people. During our time in Jerusalem, we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which sits atop the traditional site of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. It is a place of immense consequence for the Christian faith, and it’s unsurprising that representatives from multiple denominations are housed inside the church. The description “sharing space” would be too strongly worded and ultimately inaccurate, for these six denom...
• Again! by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (12/4/2013)
  Second Sunday of Advent Isaiah 11:1-10 Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 Romans 15:4-13 Matthew 3:1-12 1. I’ve learned from spending time with little kids that they are universally into repetition. How many times in a row have you played the “so-big” game? Read a book straight through only to be met with demands for an immediate encore…or three? Or watched a favorite TV episode or movie on loop? There’s good reason – repetition helps kids learn and facilitates brain development. Repetition and routine also provide comfort and stability, ...
• How Do You Sing the Lord's Song? by Anna MacDonald Dobbs (10/1/2013)
  Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost Lamentations 1:1-6 Psalm 137 2 Timothy 1:1-14 Luke 17:5-10 Funny enough – there ain’t a whole lot of communing going on in the scriptures provided for World Communion Sunday. Exiled from the Promised Land, the people of Israel are inconsolable and vengeful. (Make sure you read that last line in Psalm 137. Read it again. You got it - they want somebody to enjoy bashing baby heads into rocks). Her streets empty of God’s people, Jerusalem also suffers, mourning and sheddi...