Year C - Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
In the spring, sudden storm on the upper reaches of the world’s highest mountain trapped some of the best climbers in the world, and the slopes of Mt. Everest are littered with more bodies. In 1921 the British explorer, George Mallory, made the first extensive attempt on the summit which the “Sherpa people of northern […]
Read MoreYear: C – The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost.
He was called St. Alypius. He lived in the sixth century in Paphligonia, a territory now occupied by the modern state of Turkey. His country must have been beautiful. It was a mountainous region that ran along the coast. And what a view he must have enjoyed, from the top of that stone pillar which […]
Read MoreYear B – Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
“It’s all a matter of where you draw your lines.” So, says one of my best friends from seminary days. Theology is a continuum. It’s where you draw your line. Ethics is a continuum. Where you draw your line. Politics, economics, social and cultural mores… all, where you draw your lines. In the ancient world […]
Read MoreYear B – Second Sunday after the Epiphany
She has been blind from birth. She has never seen her mother’s face, her father’s smile, a sunset at dusk or the opening of a flower in bloom. But now, she “sees” in stereo sound. The glasses she wears look a little like something out of Star Trek. There are no lenses in these glasses. […]
Read MoreYear C – Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - (Proper 8)
How much is too much? At the Baptist boys’ camp where I worked for nine years, the Craft Hut was just up the path from Unit #2 Bathhouse. The summer of 1983 when I ran the place I called it “Dino’s Depot,” and it was a place of learning and creative exploration, a place where […]
Read MoreYear C – Fifth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 7
In the days following the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, reporters and native New Yorkers spoke of the change that had fallen over the city: In the place of rush-hour traffic there were empty streets. In the place of strangers, rushing by, hardly noticing one another, there were smiles, and strangers who […]
Read MoreYear C: Proper 6 (11) - Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and […]
Read MoreYear C - Proper 5 (10) - Third Sunday after Pentecost
Three Cows. The old preacher went to visit one of his parishioners who owned a small farm. The farmer had worked hard, but just scraped by to make a living. The preacher was greeted warmly and on the porch was offered a glass of lemonade, a cane-bottom chair, and a conversation. As it always did […]
Read MoreYear C - Proper 4 - Second Sunday after Pentecost
Several years ago we spent a season reflecting on the biblical narrative as “story,” and the importance of story to our lives. As a response, we changed the call-and-response for our scripture reading in worship from the traditional: “This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.” to “You have heard the ancient […]
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