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“From One Degree to Another”
Transfiguration Sunday
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
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Many of us started this morning by greeting someone or being greeted by someone with the words, “Happy Valentine’s Day!” Maybe someone even wished you a happy Chinese new year. But here inside the church we are celebrating something else, too. There are no greeting cards for it, and no expectations for flowers, chocolates, or gifts. I know of no one who goes out for a romantic dinner in celebration of it. We observe it every year, but most of us would be hard-pressed to say why. But let me be the first to wish you a good one: Happy Transfiguration Sunday!
Perhaps you remember the transfiguration story. (more…)
“Lord of the Broken Nets”
5th Sunday after the Epiphany
Luke 5:1-11
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It had been a night like any other night for Simon and his friends. They had spent the whole night fishing. But for all their work, they had come back to shore with nothing. They stood there next to their boats, washing their nets, ready for a hot breakfast and a long nap. And up walks this man who just steps into Simon’s boat, sits down, and starts teaching. A crowd is pressing in on him, anxious to hear the word of God, and so he delivers it, sitting in Simon’s fishing boat. (more…)
“Beloved”
Baptism of the Lord
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
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If you had gotten to be the one to pick the name on your birth certificate, what name would you have picked? Would you have chosen something more original? – or less? Is there some name you think would fit you better than the one you got? (more…)
“Remembering Forward”
4th Sunday of Advent
Luke 1:39-45
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The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, houses some of the world’s most famous art – works by Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt. Rooms and halls full of pieces by the Masters, much of it devoted to religious themes. Mary is a favorite subject. In room after room, there she is. Putting down her Bible while she receives the startling news from the angel Gabriel. Kneeling at the manger with her husband Joseph, gazing at her new baby. Presenting the baby in the temple. Many paintings simply depict her with her child, in a sort of portrait form. Some show her much later in life, weeping at the foot of the cross. In all of it, Mary is defined by those in the picture with her: the angel, Jesus the baby, Jesus the dying Savior. Her role seems to be to respond, to accept whatever life lays on her – an unsought pregnancy, the birth of a baby, the death of a child. (more…)
“Be Prepared!”
2nd Sunday of Advent
Luke 3:1-6
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If I were to do a survey of which songs have been stuck in your heads lately, I bet we would notice a fair number of commonalities among us.
A handful of you would say, “Jingle Bell Rock.” Several of you more nostalgic types would probably offer, “White Christmas,” while Elvis fans would chime in with “Blue Christmas.” Those of you who don’t mind the cold have probably been happily humming, “Let it snow! Let is snow! Let it snow!” And I’m guessing a large segment of you, against your will, have been looping, “Feliz Navidad!” (more…)
“The Reign of Truth”
Christ the King Sunday
John 18:33-37
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Happy Christ the King Sunday!
That doesn’t have a great ring to it, does it?
Okay. How about this:
Happy Reign of Christ Sunday!
No? What about: Happy last Sunday of the Christian year?
None of these sounds quite right. We are not all that accustomed to celebrating this Sunday as any kind of special day. We are getting ourselves ready for Thanksgiving, and then Advent, and then, finally, Christmas. It is just much easier to simply say, “Happy Holidays.” (more…)
“The Harvest of Kindness”
23rd Sunday after Pentecost
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
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In the late 1940s, a group of missionaries working with the Tuareg people of the Sahara Desert began to translate the Bible into the tribal language of the nomads there. The first book they chose to translate was the Book of Ruth – partly because their best contacts were with women and this is a story about women and about the things that women care about. But they also did it because the story is direct, and beautiful, and engaging. It is little, but it is luminous. (more…)
“The Question”
1st Sunday after Pentecost
Mark 10:46-52′
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Stories about healings inevitably raise difficult questions for modern Christians. What really happened? Are these stories true, or are they just told to make us believe in Jesus’ divinity? Why don’t the types of miraculous healings from the Bible happen anymore? Or do they? And if they do, then what is the relationship between faith and healing? If someone doesn’t get healed, does it mean they didn’t have enough faith? The questions are daunting. (more…)