At the Great Vigil of Easter, the Rev. Carr Holland: “To get Easter, to receive Easter in its depth, you have to become familiar with apparent failure.”

The Rev. Carr Holland reflects on Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3:14-21: “This is a story of God remaining oddly, mercifully just. The Israelites sin, they are punished, they look upon the bronze snake and the cost of their sin is squarely seen. They choose hope, a will to see and change, and they are healed.”

The Rev. Carr Holland meditates on Mark 1:29-39 and prayer: “Prayer orients, reorients, orients us again, if we will but stop and yield to its pattern.”

The Rev. Carr Holland discusses Mark 1:4-11 on the first Sunday after the Epiphany: “These gentle comings of God are what we weave our life of faith on. God comes in our care, Jesus shows up in the ways we listen and hear, the hands we hold, the meals we prepare and give away…”

At the family-friendly service on Christmas Eve, the Rev. Carr Holland offers a message for children (and adults) about God’s love.

The Rev. Carr Holland considers Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 and John 1:6-8,19-28: “It is so easy when you are sifting rubble or old bones to forget that sometimes there is a hope, a dream of good that’s waiting to be found there.”

The Rev. Carr Holland reflects on Matthew 25:31-46 and the Feast of Christ the King: “In every moment, when we connect responsively to another’s need, we not only are serving Christ but it is as if we’re becoming Christ. We represent him in the world… The flow of God’s care almost always passes through a human being.”

If you are like me, you’ve spent part of this week puzzled by violence.  After watching nature do so much violence, first by the fires in the west and then by the hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and many of the Caribbean islands and in the Dominion of Puerto Rico, many of us began to feel emotionally exhausted.  …  Then the shootings in Vegas happened….  (Matthew 21:33-46)

Odd things in scripture capture my imagination, like there are several places in scripture where we meet pairs of people. Pairs invite us to think about relationships about what connects them, about what makes them communities of understanding either held or sought (Luke 24:13-35).

The Rev. Carr Holland discusses the Washing of the Feet, the Last Supper, and the unknowable depth of God’s love (John 13:1-17, 31b-35).