Here Am I
On this final Sunday of Advent, we hear the announcement to Mary that she will bear a son and her pause to this revelation. How can we connect to Mary in her time of question and discernment toward ultimately saying Here am I, Lord?
The Complexity of Joy
On this third Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of Joy and hear from the Gospel of John. We hear John bear witness of who Christ is through his litany of who he is not. In this text, we are reminded that we can let go of all the many things we are not knowing God created us as we are in all of our complexities. Including the complex nature of joy.
Keep watch
It’s the first Sunday of Advent, and we begin our journey of watching and waiting. We start a new liturgical year and reground ourselves in the presence of God and a reminder from Jesus to keep watch. So, as we begin our season of watchful waiting, what might we need to reprioritize or let go of so that we can focus on the present moment and not forget the reason for the season.
Parables as Subversive Speech: Who is the Hero of the ‘Parable of the Talents’?
Matthew 25:14-30 Parable of the Talents Year A Proper 28 – 25th Sunday after Pentecost I grew up, at times, relatively poor, in a post-manufacturing town in southeastern Michigan. My parents divorced when I was ten, and my mother, without even a high school diploma, and battling medical and psychological health concerns, struggled to find meaningful work. While I knew we had a safety net in my extended family, there was little money, and we received at times welfare assistance.…
Are you prepared for what’s coming…..?
I’ll be quite honest with you, I wrestled with what I was going to preach on today. I’ve had a lot on my mind: end of tax season (will it ever end?), catching up on returning after 2 months away, keeping my clients happy at the beginning of the month, turning out reports and going to meetings. So I’ve procrastinated all week (well, really for several weeks) and haven’t been able to connect with the readings for today. And I’ll…
What is Love?
In our Gospel text for today, Jesus responds to the questions of the Pharisees and shares again the greatest law to love God with all of whom we are, then adds a way in which we can do that by loving our Neighbor as ourselves. While we’ve heard these teachings before, have we truly pondered what it means to love God? What does love in action towards God look like? Join us for a text that often leaves us with more questions than answers.
Bless
This Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of St Francis and learn a little about what his life can teach us. We also consider a familiar gospel text in new ways as we center ourselves in the many characters and positions of the text. The Gospel is rarely an either or text but often a yes and proposition as our lives find us connecting with many faces within the text.
Enough
Our Hebrew text and Gospel invite us to consider the unending Grace God offers us through our creation and the knowledge that we are enough.
A New Song
The first time ever I drove down Los Osos Valley Road from the freeway, I said, aloud, “This is the most beautiful valley I have ever seen.” It was a spring morning following winter rains. The sky was a brilliant blue. The nestling hills were an intense green. The first wildflowers were beginning to emerge along the roadside. And as we came near Los Osos, great splashes of colors bathed the fields where farmers were raising flowers for seed. The…