Love Is Kind: A Wedding Sermon for Sam and McKinley
Photography Credit: Logan Weston The Beatitudes of Jesus and Paul’s beautiful words on love from Corinthians were not composed with marriage in mind. They were meant as reminders to the communities that heard them of the values of God’s kingdom, which were counter to just about every value of the society around them, centered then—as…
Easter 2025: Little Bear, Baptism, and God’s Shalom
We celebrate Jesus’ resurrection today—that tremendous, impossible-to-grasp act of love. From his baptism, Jesus is linked heart, spirit, and body to God’s shalom–God’s great love and enduring peace. He lives out God’s kingdom here on earth in everything he says and does. As Peter says in today’s readings, with the power of the Holy Spirit,…
Epiphany 3c: Singing the Way
I was raised as a Roman Catholic, a tradition I eventually left but that formed me and kept me faithful for many years. I’ve often credited my parents for that. My mother, supported by my dad, made sure that faith was part of our home life in concrete ways that I loved as a child…
The Story of Christmas: The Truths that Hold Us
For Christmas, Alex, who will be marrying Cole next summer (yay us!), gifted me three books I love and have been reading all at the same time. My favorite is My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, the first of a four-part series that takes us through the lives of two friends, Lenu and Lila, growing…
Shine with the Light of Christ: A Post-Election Reflection
Psalm 146 Lauda, anima mea 1 Hallelujah!Praise the Lord, O my soul! *I will praise the Lord as long as I live;I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 2 Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, *for there is no help in them. 3 When…
Proper 8b: Beloved/Believe
Many years ago, when my boys were little and before my daughter was born, we spent a week with my family at our annual family reunion/cousin love fest. One morning, we headed to a park on the banks of a wide river. Two cousins wanted to cross a footbridge over to the other side of…
Proper 4B: Why Sabbath Matters
Out of all the things I love about summer in Ely, I love gardening best. I love digging into warm soil after six months of snow and watching the plants I’ve been growing for years (even the buggers I don’t want) poke up through the soil. I love the humming of bees working the apple…
Lent 2b: The Covenant and the Cross
These past two weeks, the first lessons have been about God’s covenants with Noah and, today, Abram. God’s covenants look different in different times but are always about God lavishing blessings on people in response to their faithfulness–their saying yes to God. Last week, God singled out Noah as the one good person left in…
Proper 9a: Rhythms of Grace
Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie stars as Jesus in a scene from an episode of the popular streaming show “The Chosen” that was filmed on location in Midlothian, Texas. News photo/courtesy The Chosen This week, three people asked me what I thought of the television show The Chosen, a relatively unknown, crowd-sourced television series imaginatively retelling…
Easter 2: Faith and Doubt
When I was a freshman at the University of Virginia, fresh out of Catholic high school, I took a religion class called Faith and Doubt. My mother encouraged me to sign up for it–college was a time to learn about different ideas and beliefs, she said. But that fall, when I read those new ideas…
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