Some of you may be familiar with a Steven Sondheim musical called “Into the Woods,” which is a retelling of many of the fairy tales that we’re all familiar with in a way that intersect one another so that new stories come out of it. The play begins with three story lines of some of these fairy tale characters who really deeply desire and ask for something…
Yesterday morning as I skimmed the New York Times, online of course, and sipped my coffee, I happened upon a piece by one of my favorite columnists, Bob Herbert. It was titled, “Tweet Less, Kiss More.” Although I will probably be the last tweeter on earth, I thought it would be worth my while to read on, and I was not disappointed…
On the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, there’s a Jewish cemetery. Seemingly for miles, the white caskets stretch, covering the side of the hill for as far as you can see, and dominating the view of the city from that angle. When I asked the tour guide why, he told me many Jewish people want to be buried on the Mount so they’re close to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where the Old Testament tells us human beings will be resurrected on the Day of Judgement…
Today is the sixth Sunday after the day of Pentecost and the two hundred and thirty fourth annual celebration of our nation’s independence from Great Britain. So I greet you with God’s blessing upon us all and a cheerful good morning. In a letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams wrote in 1776 that our national independence day ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty…
Real presence. Ever heard that phrase, “real presence?” Presence meaning not gifts – presents but presence, to be present to another. Real presence. We oftentimes use that phrase when we talk about the Eucharist. We talk about Jesus being really present to us. We say that when we celebrate the Eucharist that the bread and wine is tranformed from the body and blood of Jesus, and Jesus is really present…
The man lives in the dark, dank tombs with the dead. Ironic because he feels alive; a vigorous, intense, high-voltage, alive-ness as his mind jumps from thought to thought. He moves from cave to stone marker depending on which voice in his head takes control in a given moment. The name bestowed on him at birth is long-lost, but the multitude of voices in his head have found a place to live…
When I hear of Jesus’ visit to the home of a Pharisee named Simon I imagine a somewhat formal setting. A Pharisee would have been a fairly important religious figure within that community, or at least regarded himself as important within that community. And when Jesus was invited, he was invited to sit at the table, and there were a number of people there with him…
Today is the Sunday following the Feast of Pentecost and is named Trinity Sunday. We are reminded that the God that we seek and serve is three in one. This feast is actually our last celebration before we enter into the long season of ordinary time that finishes out the church year…
Today is Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the Church. Pentecost is a Greek word meaning fifty. So we celebrate Pentecost 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. The readings for today so beautifully dovetail together, giving us a great view of what transpired on that first Pentecost morning…
Have you ever seen the show Myth Busters? In the show, these two guys take on something that people accept as true and try to prove that it’s not true. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they don’t. They’re using the word myth as it is usually used in our culture and society to mean something that’s not true. But in theology and spirituality we often use the word in a different way…