Genesis 45:3-11, 15 I sat in a gathering the other night, all of us in a large circle, listening to one tell her story. The group which has been going deep in our understanding of our racial history as a nation for the last couple of years is taking it a step deeper even, going …
Blessed Are The Poor…
Luke 6:17-26 I got the call a few days back. If you sit in a chair like mine, you’ve gotten them as well, and maybe more often now than ever. She had called before. In fact, following her plea for help with rent we had paid half in early December. Two months later, her situation …
Burning Lips, Burning Hearts
Isaiah 6:1-13 And so it is we come now to the mystical, perhaps more than mildly terrifying account of the call of Isaiah. This one where God is portrayed so large we only encounter the hem of the Almighty’s robe, for that is all that will fit, and where these odd flying creatures carry out …
The Call of Jeremiah Still Speaks…
Jeremiah 1:4-10 As I sit with this remarkable piece from Jeremiah this week, I cannot help but wonder who among us hasn’t thought about ‘call’ lately. Maybe you, like I, have more frequently wondered of late what God could possibly have been thinking when this call was first placed on your heart. Or perhaps you …
“Until Everyone Is Free…””
Luke 4:14-21 “He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” To tell you the truth, I have been wrestling with this piece of Luke’s Gospel ever since I opened it up at …
Water Into Wine: Carrying the Water
John 2:1-11 What are we to do with a story so familiar? Not knowing quite where to begin with its meaning for us, this time through I found myself simply standing still with each of those upon whom the story seems to turn. Or not, as the case may be. I wondered about the mother …
The Baptism of Jesus and a Covid-19 Testing Line
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 In spent an hour in a Covid-19 testing line the other day. Only an hour, give or take, because the community where I live is not especially large and we are fortunate to have a couple of such walk-up sites. Only an hour, although it took that long to find the place …
“Home By Another Road…”
Matthew 2:1-12 For many a season now I have read T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Journey of the Magi,” expecting it would bring deeper meaning to the Epiphany. The truth is, though, that while I referred to it 9 years ago now in On Magi and Journeys, many years it has fallen a bit flat for …
On Stars and a Borrowed Baby Jesus and Making Room
Luke 2:1-20 John 1:1-14 I sit to write on Christmas Eve, trying, and trying again as I have for days, to bring words to the meaning of this day. For myself, of course, yes, but also for those who will gather in a few short hours now. Last Christmas was almost unrecognizable for all that …
The Christmas Shepherds
Luke 2:1-20 It was going to be a quiet Saturday. I had planned to spend it in the kitchen baking and making toffee with Christmas carols accompanying me as I measured and stirred and kneaded. Only a text pinged at 7:30 and the phone rang again not much later with the news of first one …