lent

  • A Service to Break Down Walls on Ash Wednesday

    Sometimes cooking begins just by opening the pantry and realizing that that something delicious with peanut butter (because you mysteriously have a surplus of peanut butter) sounds really good. That’s kinda how this service came together. It all started with… Continue reading

    A Service to Break Down Walls on Ash Wednesday
  • Ash Wednesday

    My sister died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It’s a fact that has haunted these first few months of my own daughter’s life. She died before I was born but the memory is alive. I wake to hear my little… Continue reading

    Ash Wednesday
  • Toward Transformation This Lent

    The holy season of Lent begins in just a few short weeks on Valentines Day, if you can believe it. Even if you can’t quite fathom this holy and profane confusion, get ready. Easter will fall on April Fools Day… Continue reading

    Toward Transformation This Lent
  • Bit By Bit

    It is the First Sunday of Lent and I’m missing church. I miss good preaching. Today I could not push myself out the door to find some place to relish in the mystery of these holy forty days because I… Continue reading

    Bit By Bit
  • Jesus is…

    In the midst of another holy season, my pastor invited us to ponder who Jesus is. The question stuck with me and inspired a whole preaching series on christological terms. It’s what has led us in the church I’m serving… Continue reading

    Jesus is…
  • Last Minute Plans for Lent

    Lent is just one week away. Most plans have already been laid out. It’s been printed in the newsletter and in the bulletin. Resources have been ordered. Palms have been burned. (I know because the traffic on this old post… Continue reading

  • They Were Innocent

    I don’t know why my daughter was killed. She was innocent. I can’t get these words out of my head. Surrounded by cardboard boxes that seem to never quite get unpacked, I keep thinking about these words spoken by the… Continue reading

  • Blurring the Lines

    So often, when we hear these words in Matthew 25:31-46, we focus on the actions for which we might be judged: the feeding, the visiting, the quenching of the thirst, the caring for the sick.  We focus on the least… Continue reading

    Blurring the Lines
  • Open the Door to Us

    Toward the end of my last call, I stopped writing liturgy. There were so many other things to do. So very many things. I just didn’t have time. Or I didn’t make time. Because writing liturgy takes time. Lots of… Continue reading

    Open the Door to Us
  • Lent Comes

    Lent has come. And so I found myself seated in the back of the local Episcopal Church. Because I am not pastoring a church anymore. I concluded my second call on Sunday. It’s over — just before Lent was to… Continue reading