Posts from 2013

• Darkness and Light, and My Son’s Need to Know Where the Bad People Go by John Jay Alvaro (1/2/2013)
  Epiphany of the Lord Isaiah 60:1-6 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12 Dallas, my current hometown, is full of huge churches with important pastors. The church where I serve is tiny by comparison, and outside of our little baptist tradition (i.e. not SBC) no one knows or really cares what we are up to week to week. Fine by us, but it is a stark contrast to the giant religious groups flanking 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...
• Year C collected by Ekklesia Project (1/9/2013)
  [image]Since we've now worked through the three year lectionary cycle, we have links to all the previous year C posts (2009-2010) here. But, if you would rather see the reflections in one document, it's now available as a pdf. The authors for the year C bLOGOS reflections are:  Ragan Sutterfield, Brian Volck, Jenny Williams, Doug Lee, Kyle Childress, Debra Dean Murphy, Halden Do...
• Risky Waters by Heather Carlson (1/10/2013)
  Baptism of the Lord Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Since leaving the pulpit three years ago to be a full time homemaker, our family has had more opportunity to worship with diverse strands of the Christian church and witness the baptisms of family, friends and strangers. Immersion, sprinkling, hot tubs, porcelain shells, flowing gowns, bathing suits, candles, vows, handshakes, testimonies, processions, and creeds. There is no standard form in which baptism is celebrated, and just below the surface a great deal of history about how we have fought and killed one another over the rite. When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. (NIV) It strikes me that Jesus isn't alone. The...
• Blessing and the Christian Life by Danny Yencich (1/16/2013)
  Second Sunday after Epiphany Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Isaiah 62:1-5 Psalm 36:5-10 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 John 2:1-11 The Christian life is, or ought to be, an abundant life ever-rich in the centripetal blessings of God to God’s people and the centrifugal blessings of God’s people to God’s world. This pattern reaches back to the earliest chapters of Genesis as Abram is blessed to be the father of a nation which will in turn be a blessing unto the world. The pattern is then displayed throughout the rest of the Scriptures, as God’s ...
• A Nose Hair in the Body of Christ by Brian Volck (1/21/2013)
  Third Sunday after Epiphany Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 
 Nehemiah 8:2-4A,5-6,8-10 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 Luke 4:14-21 Last year,while visiting our dear friends,Sandie and Owen,and enjoying an evening of good food and even better conversation, Jill, my wife, said, only half in jest, “When I look at what other people accomplish, I can’t help thinking about all those other things I should be doing: working to stop the death penalty, saving starving children, reading the best books, having informed opinions.” Sandie paused a moment to ponder Jill’s concerns, and said, “All those things a...
• Rejoice in the Truth by Janice Love (1/31/2013)
  Fourth Sunday after Epiphany Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Jeremiah 1: 4-10 I Corinthians 13 Luke 4: 21-30 There has been a big build up to this Sunday - four weeks of waiting for the birth of Jesus, two weeks celebrating it, marking the Epiphany with the magi and the baptism of Jesus, the performance of Jesus’ first miracle of water turned to wine and finally his reading from the scroll of Isaiah in his home congregation to announce the arrival of God’s jubilee and of God’s Messiah. All eyes are on him now as he launches into his ministry. We have this Sunday only to contemplate what J...
• Uncover Your Face by Ragan Sutterfield (2/7/2013)
  Last Epiphany, Year C Exodus 34:29-35 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36, [37-43a] One of my favorite passages in contemporary literature comes toward the end of Rick Moody’s The Black Veil.  The book is a memoir that explores a family myth that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s parable “The Minister’s Black Veil” was inspired by one of Moody’s ancestors, a guilt ridden puritan minister.  To understand the power of the black veil Moody wears one, and then riffs for pages on the power of the veil and its co...
• Saying "Yes" and Saying "No" by Kyle Childress (2/13/2013)
  First Sunday in Lent Luke 4: 1-13 I was ordained over 30 years ago by a small, rural Texas Baptist church who had called me as their new young pastor a couple of months before. I invited to preach my ordination service a retired preacher whom I knew from my college church. He was in his mid-80’s, gentle and kind, as attentive to others as anyone I’d ever known, had a deep prayer life, and rumor had it that he had memorized the entire King James Bible. He preached a fine sermon on loving God, loving the Bible, and loving God’s people. After the service, of course, we all joined in a country church dinner on the grounds of which legends are made. Soon thereafter, I escorted the old preacher to his ca...
• 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...
• Scapegoats and Torturers by Ekklesia Project (2/25/2013)
  Two messages of interest to EP endorsers come this week from the University of Dayton. The first, from Katherine Schmidt, a UD graduate student in theology, considers stranded cruise ships and the persistence of scapegoating. The second, from UD Professor and EP board member, Jana Bennett, looks at the Transfiguration, torture, and the ethical formation found in a series of small moments. ...
• A Cheer for an Invisible Parade by Jim McCoy (3/1/2013)
  Third Sunday of Lent Isaiah 55:1-13 I Corinthians 10:1-13 Luke 13:1-9 It is worse than you think it is and you are freer than you think you are. The powers are raging beyond your control and they are already overcome in Christ. The division is an uncrossable spiritual chasm and it’s been crossed. - William Stringfellow The Church in America is fragmented and in disarray, laments Fleming Rutledge. The impasse of different factions is symptomatic of “a perilous state of affairs” (And God Spoke to Abraham). Rutledge’s emergency room prescription? Six months of intensive preachi...
• Difficult Freedom by Mark Ryan (3/6/2013)
  Fourth Sunday of Lent Joshua 5:9-12 Psalm 32 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 With regard to last week’s readings, Jim McCoy began in meditation on William Stringfellow’s description of the freedom of the church… “you are freer than you think.” During Lent, worship in our congregation recalls repeatedly Jesus’ temptation in the desert, which echoes the Exodus from Egypt and the Israelites’ wandering in the desert. Prior to the gospel reading, we sing “forty days and forty nights/thou was fasting in the wild/forty days and forty nights/tempted, and ye...
• "The regime...was just demolished...by...tears." by John Jay Alvaro (3/15/2013)
  Fifth Sunday of Lent Isaiah 43:16-21 Psalm 126 Philippians 3: 4-14 John 8: 1-11 Lent is a difficult season to live into. 40 days contemplating our frail and fragile condition, giving sadness and heaviness room to breathe. This is particularly true in a culture that values positivity like it were gold. Which leaves little room for tears. Crying is for girls, or babies, 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 li...
• Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! by Heather Carlson (3/21/2013)
  Palm Sunday Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29 Luke 19:28-40 Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! These celebratory words plunge us into Palm Sunday pageantry: greens waving, draped cloaks, children processing, and hosannas resounding. Six weeks into Lent, we may be looking for an escape. We hear the cry, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!" and we catch a brief glimpse of Jesus as coming king. Finally there is light in the darkness! The crowds that gathered some 2000 years ago are also relieved; it's not simply six weeks from which they seek reprieve, but a lifetime (and an ancestry) of heaviness, oppressi...
• Rejoice! Our Work Has Just Begun! by Brian Volck (3/27/2013)
  Easter Sunday Acts 10:34-43 Ps 118 Col 3:1-4 OR 1 Cor 5:6-8 OR 1 Cor 15:19-26 Jn 20:1-9 OR Lk 24:1-12 We didn’t expect this. No matter how many times we’re told the story, we never do. Like Hazel Motes in Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood, most of us shout to the world through our attitudes and actions – if not necessarily with words – that, “I'm a member and preacher to that church w...
• Do You Love Me? by Janice Love (4/11/2013)
  Third Sunday of Easter Acts 9: 1-20 Psalm 30 Revelation 5: 11-14 John 21: 1-19 What a gift the Great Fifty Days are for the church! Time to celebrate. Time to ponder. Celebrate and ponder the stupefying wonder that is the Resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. Here we are on the third Sunday of Easter and the disciples still aren’t getting it. Their continued bafflement speaks volumes to the shock of what has taken place. Thousands of years later the ripples of that decisive Act of God can continue to confound us; the church is still in need of...
• Believing and Proclaiming by Mark Ryan (4/16/2013)
  Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 9:36-43 Psalm 23 Revelation 7:9-17 John 10:22-30 Sharing a household with beloved in-laws who watch TV regularly and don’t hear as well as I do, I have learned to turn away from a blasting televisions, as it strives to capture my attention with its show of urgency or of overwhelming sensation. Yesterday afternoon was somewhat of an exception. When my dear mother in law instructed me in a whisper to ‘turn on the TV’—she was on the phone at the time—I felt a sense of foreboding. As I pondered the clicker,...
• Loving Those People by Ragan Sutterfield (4/25/2013)

  Easter 5, Year C

  John 13:31-35

  She stood outside of the meeting room, a cigarette in hand--crying.  This was a weekend spiritual retreat, a time of renewal, but for this woman it was clearly painful, even degrading.  My wife approached the woman and asked what was wrong.  “I’m Baptist,” she said, “and everyone is just saying such bad things about us.”  The retreat was put on by the Episcopal Church and this being a southern Episcopal gathering “Baptist bashing” is bound to be the common sport.  The Baptist are the dominant denomination in the region, often conservative brands.  Many in the Episcopal Church grew up in Baptist churches or similar denomination...

• Our Place Redeemed by Kyle Childress (4/29/2013)
  Sixth Sunday in Easter John 14:23-29 Revelation 21:10, 22:1-5 In our contemporary world, it is difficult to belong. We are so busy and on the move, it seems to be better to keep commitments to a minimum. 20% to 30% of all Americans move each year and the average American moves fourteen times over a lifetime. Poet, essayist, and editor of Poetry magazine Christian Wiman remembers that when he was thirty-six years old, he had moved forty times in fifteen years. He said he owned nothing that would not fit easily into his car. When talking about this with some friends, all of whom were in their twenties and thirties, all smart, well-ed...
• In Memoriam - Brian Logan by Brent Laytham (5/2/2013)

  We give thanks for the life and witness of our dear friend and brother in Christ, Brian Logan (1961 - 2013), and  we grieve his loss with his wife, Suzie,  their children, Kolbe and Lydia, and the Church of the Servant King. Hundreds of EP'ers know Brian's gentle presence, humor, and grace from the many Gatherings he attended.

  May Brian's soul and the souls of all the departed faithful by God's mercy rest in peace.

  Here follows Brian's obituary:

  Born Febrary 24 1961 in Houston,Texas the son of John and Hildy Logan , Brian died Monday, April, 29, 2013 at his home in Eugene, Oregon. He was 52. Brian was raised in San Diego, CA graduating from Mission Bay High School in 1979. He attended Preston Road School of Preaching...
• 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, Where in the World? by Jim McCoy (5/16/2013)

  Pentecost Sunday Acts 2:1-21 Psalm 104:24-34, 35b Romans 8:14-17 John 14:8-17 (25-27) One of my prized possessions is a cassette recording of Thomas Merton lecturing his fellow monks at their Kentucky monastery during Advent of 1964. He tells them that we must come to see that Christianity exists in history, and that we have to see Advent in terms of contemporary history. He details some then-current events: the shootings and killings in Mississippi, the war in Rhodesia. Then he says, “Pious meditations on how rough Mary and Joseph and the B...
• Overcoming Epistemology by Mark Ryan (5/23/2013)
  Trinity Sunday Psalm 8 “…one God, the one beginning of all things, the wisdom by which every soul is wise, and the gift by which all things blessed are blessed…the Trinity of one substance…the beginning to which we return, the form (or pattern) we follow after, the grace by which we are reconciled…the one God whose creation gives us life, through whose re-forming we live wisely, by the love and enjoyment of whom live blessedly.” - Augustine, Retractions The doctrine of the Trinity can present itself as quite an intellectual puzzle, perhaps especially to the monotheistic believer, and it is therefore rightly called a “mystery.” However, attending to Trinitarian orthodoxy and its implication of us and God can bring spiritual re...
• The Hope of Widows by Danny Yencich (6/8/2013)
  Third Sunday after Pentecost Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 1 Kings 17:8-24 Galatians 1:11-24 Luke 7:11-17 Together this week’s lectionary readings bespeak a current that flows throughout the biblical narrative. These are vibrant stories and exaltations, full to the brim with joy and gladness at the beauty of a life restored. The world of the bible, like our own, is a world fraught with difficulty and marred by suffering and sadness. But, like seedlings which break through concrete, the power of resurrection—of life itself—breaks forth and beats the odds. These are stories of hope amidst hards...
• More Than a Prophet by Heather Carlson (6/12/2013)
  Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15 Galatians 2:15-21 Luke 7:36-8:3 I live in a small city that loves to fund raise with lavish galas. The nails get polished and the clothes are glamorous. The food is decadent and the entertainment stunning. For a few hours this jeans-only oil town puts on the Ritz. And people want to know who is going; facebook, twitter and local gossip heats up. Will the beloved mayor be there? How about the multimillionaire industry leaders? Are there national and international celebrities coming to town? It makes ...
• Declare How Much God has Done for You by Janice Love (6/20/2013)
  Fifth Sunday After Pentecost Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time I Kings 19: 1-15a Psalm 42 & 43 Galatians 3: 23-29 Luke 8: 26-39 It is, in the Northern Hemisphere, the season of summer – of fun on the water in many forms. We, ourselves, live by three lakes and spend much time in them, on them and by them at this time of year. Our impending visit to my sister’s on the Saskatchewan prairies holds the promise of a visit to their cabin with boating, tubing, skiing and skipping stones on the to do list – unlike our last visit when our son ...
• Stay Close by Ragan Sutterfield (6/26/2013)
  Proper 8 Luke 9:51-62 Jesus walks, moves, doesn't stick around. He doesn't wait until you've figured out your plans, vested your 401(K), said your goodbyes and wrapped up loose ends. To be a disciple, to follow Jesus, is to go when the teacher goes, follow where the teacher leads. The student is not to say, "where next," but repeat to herself, "stay close." That's what I read in this gospel passage where Jesus tells us "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." "Stay close" disrupts our stable world of fixed religion, it requires us to stick less to this or that place whether it is a physical place or a p...
• A Different Sort of History by Brian Volck (7/2/2013)
  Seventh Sunday After Pentecost Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2 Kings 5:1-14 OR Isaiah 66:10-14 Galatians 6:7-18 Luke 10:1-12, 16-20 “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in
 reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel!” -Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2 “Well, boy, if he’s an angel, he’s sure a murderin’ angel.” -The Killer Angels It’s a week of significant anniversaries in North America. July 1 is the 146th year since the pass...
• Tensions in the Law by Mark Ryan (7/9/2013)
  Eighth Sunday after Pentecost Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Amos 7:7-17 OR Deuteronomy 30:9-14 Psalm 82 Colossians 1:1-14 Luke 10:25-37 Law and land are themes running through this week’s lectionary readings. In Deuteronomy, Moses spells out the law for the Promised Land that the Israelite’s will soon inhabit. In Luke, Jesus discusses Torah and its interpretation with a young lawyer as he journeys to Jerusalem, a journey that requires many Israelites to pass through the land of the ...
• Listening to the Word by Kyle Childress (7/16/2013)
  Ninth Sunday after Pentecost Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 10: 38-42 Jesus is getting close to Jerusalem and confrontation. Luke says that Jesus goes to the home of Mary and Martha, which we know from John is also the home of Lazarus, which is located in the village of Bethany, just over the hill from the outskirts of Jerusalem. Luke says they welcome him into their home and Martha gets busy doing the many things a good hostess does: preparing food, setting the table, straightening the room, picking up the newspapers that have piled up, and on and on. Meanwhile, sister Mary sits in front of Jesus listening to what he has to say. Martha, understandably frustrated says, “Lord, don’t you care...
• Treading Silently Near Tender Hearts by John Jay Alvaro (7/25/2013)
  Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Hosea 1:2-10 OR Genesis 18:20-32 Colossians 2:6-15 Luke 11:1-13 When I was in college I read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, a modern retelling of the book of Hosea. I was terribly curious what all the fuss was about, and was rewarded 400+ pages later with an icky feeling. 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 b...
• 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...
• Sacrifice by Jim McCoy (8/8/2013)
  Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23 Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 Luke 12:32-40 “God is raging in the prophet’s words,” says Abraham Heschel. In the vision of Isaiah, the word of the Lord scorches every act of the people’s worship and prayer.

  What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? Trample my courts no more. Bringing offerings is futile. I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your appointed festivals my soul hates. Even though you ...

• The Church in the Wild by Ragan Sutterfield (8/15/2013)

  Isaiah 5:1-7

  Several years ago I heard an interview with Alan Weisman about his book The World Without Us.  The book’s title is fairly explanatory of its subject--it is a book about the world after humankind--how long it would take for the asphalt and concrete to crack; how well all those animals we’ve bred to live with us would fare after we are gone.  It was fascinating to hear Weisman describe the changes that would come to a place like Manhattan--how the weeds, and successional trees, and cats would take over (dogs it turns out have tied their fate to ours).

  I like to entertain such ideas--of a city overgrown with weeds, of the industrial c...

• Deep and Wide by Brian Volck (8/20/2013)
  Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Jeremiah 1:4-10 OR Isaiah 58:9-14 OR Isaiah 66:18-21 Hebrews 12:18-29 OR Hebrews 12:5-13 Luke 13:10-17 OR Luke 13:22-30 It’s a difficult week for ecumenical commentary on the lectionaries, a rare Ordinary Time Sunday when none of the Revised Common Lectionary and Catholic Lectionary passages match. Books and even chapters nearly align, ...
• Praying for the Nation’s Peace and Justice by Mark Ryan (8/29/2013)
  Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Jeremiah 2:4-13 Last week, in our Episcopal church, the prayers of the people began with these two petitions:

  Let us pray for the Church and for the world. Grant, Almighty God, that who confess your name may be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal your glory in the world. Guide the people of this land, and of all the nations, in the ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another and serve the common good. (Followed by a short period of silence, and then: “Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.”)

  How does praying as the church, the holy people of God, united as one, inform our...
• To Rest in Requiring Hands by Shannon Schaefer (9/4/2013)
  Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Jeremiah 18:1-11 Philemon 1-21 Luke 14:25-33 I have long admired hand-made pottery. So when a friend who had been throwing pots for some time asked me if I would be interested in learning, I was more than enthusiastic. All of my exposure to wheel-thrown pottery indicated a serene, meditative act, and I could use a bit more of that in my life. The first day at the wheel, I held my newly kneaded lump of clay, eager for peaceful art-making, when my friend instructed me to raise up my clay in both hands and slam it down on th...
• Amazing Grace by Kyle Childress (9/10/2013)
  Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 15: 1-10 About a year ago I buried one of our church’s founding members. Back in 1968, Archie McDonald and a handful of others started our congregation, in order to have a local church with membership policies that were not segregated. Archie was a professor and historian, ornery and rough-hewn, but he had a profound sense that it was only due to the grace of a loving God that he existed at all and only by God’s grace did our church exist. He knew what the dying priest knew in Bernanos’ Diary of a Country Priest, “It’s all grace.” The very meaning of the word “grace” is “undeserved favor.” We do not deserve it. If it is deser...
• What Else is Money For? by Erin Dufault-Hunter (9/20/2013)
  Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Amos 8:4-7 1 Timothy 2:1-8 Luke 16:1-13 A friend of mine was a missionary for many years in various parts of Asia. One Sunday while on furlough she told a story about one particular country in which she had worked. The government had forbidden Christians from assembling; indeed, no citizens could have more than one other guest at their apartment at any time to preserve “order.” In defiance of political authorities, believers surreptitiously sought to get around the law; they were determined to meet together for fellowship,...
• 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...
• 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...
• Broken Symmetry by Jim McCoy (10/10/2013)
  Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Twentt-First Sunday after Pentecost 2 Timothy 2:8-15 Jeremiah 29:1,4-7 Luke 17:11-19 The real trouble with this world of ours, says G. K. Chesterton, is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. “It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait.” Chesterton imagines that if a mathematical creature from outer space saw a human body, he would at once assume that the human body is a duplicate. That is, a person is really two people: the one on the ri...
• Recreating Eaarth by Ragan Sutterfield (10/16/2013)
  Proper 24: Year C Jeremiah 31:27-34 “There is...no inconsistency between creation and salvation”--so says St. Athanasius, the 4th Century Bishop of Alexandria.  Athanasius was trying to articulate how it was that God could become incarnate in human flesh--a mind boggling reality as much in our day as it was in his.  For him, the turning of the human will against God had not only resulted in a loss of communion, but also a kind of de-creation.  As Athanasius put it, “Man who was created in God’s image...was disappearing, and the work of God was being undone.” Christ, being God’s Word present and active in creation from the beginning, had to come in human form so that he could re-create the world a...
• Why I Need the Terrible Judgment of God by Erin Dufault-Hunter (10/25/2013)
    Proper 25: Year C Joel 2:23-32; Psalm 65; Luke 18:9-14; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 I knew what I was supposed to say. I was supposed to say, “Sure. Of course I will meet to work out our difficulties, listen to his complaints.” But the words stuck in my throat. You see, I knew that I was more in the right than he. In truth, I couldn’t see how I had done anything worthy of this person’s mean and petty actions. A mutual friend was offering to mediate between us. In our phone conversation, she noted how the other party felt...
• To Feel as Christians by Mark Ryan (10/30/2013)
  Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 Psalm 119:137-144 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12 Luke 19:1-10 “I am consumed by anger, because my enemies forget your words.” (Ps 119:139) “But for those who freely serve you, for them, you are their joy. And this is the happy life, this alone, to rejoice in you, from you, through you.” (Augustine, Confessions) The Christian life goes hand and hand with a peculiar palette of emotions. At times I’ve reflected that to b...
• To Sweet Impossible Blossom by Shannon Schaefer (11/7/2013)
  Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost Luke 20:27-38 “Indeed they cannot die anymore… being children of the resurrection.” It is these words of Jesus that cause my soul to catch; these my worn heart snags on. In the gospel text this week, the Sadducees come with a theoretical question concerning a resurrection they don’t believe in. Jesus knows their unbelief. Perhaps he knows he also won’t convince them, even appealing to the Torah, as he does. But he still answers the question. They’ve come up with the perfect quandary for Jesus. A woman marries seven brothers, gives not one of them a child to carry his name and tether her to him. In the res...
• What is the Good News Anyway? by Kyle Childress (11/13/2013)
  Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19 Years ago I heard Walter Brueggemann say that the task of the church is to always proclaim the vision and vocation of God’s reign. Always. But at the same time always be patient with one another as we fail to live up to that vision and vocation. Always. Keeping that tension is part of the task of the pastor. Brueggemann’s statement is a reminder of the work we pastors do: we’re prophetic – always proclaiming the vision and vocation of God’s reign; we’re pastoral – always helping a congregation be patient with one another as we ...
• King/Fool by John Jay Alvaro (11/21/2013)
  Christ the King 2 Samuel 5:1-3 OR Jeremiah 23:1-6 Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43 I spent three years and a lot of money at a good divinity school so I could fit theology into a system. I read a lot of books by dead white guys who tried to accomplish the same project. What is the system that makes sense of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus? 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 i...
• 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”

• 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, ...
• What Are You Waiting For? by Ragan Sutterfield (12/11/2013)
  Isaiah 35:1-10 Matthew 11:2-11 I keep being told these days to wait.  In sermons, blog posts, earnest Advent Facebook updates, the message has been, more often than not, “wait.”  Waiting is good.  Waiting trains us in patience, one of the most important virtues we can cultivate.  Advent, however, isn’t the time for it.  As our gospel for this Sunday reminds us—the wait is over, the kingdom has come. The passage opens with John in prison, a place made for the worst kind of waiting.  He wants to know from Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  This is critical for John because he is ab...
• A Very Messy Christmas by Brian Volck (12/18/2013)
  Fourth Sunday in Advent Isaiah 7:10-16 Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-24 Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. -Leonard Cohen Judah is threatened, but King Ahaz, not otherwise known for piety, refuses to test God in his moment of need. God nevertheless renders a sign: Isaiah, who thinks he knows what information a calculating ruler wants to hear, announces that a girl with soon give birth. Paul writes as a self-described slave to Christians in the imperial capital where he will ev...