Author: admin

Let me tell you a little bit about the encounters I had in the past week where God’s face peeked through the clouds, where after the wind and the earthquake and the fire, God’s presence came out of the sheer silence. Today's texts: 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a and Psalms 42 and 43 Well, it’s been quite a week, hasn’t it? A week filled with shock, grief, both hatred and love, both inexplicable horror and incredible devotion – people lined up to give blood, medical personnel spending endless hours saving lives, vigil after vigil from Orlando to Washington, from downtown Madison to...
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Imagine you are in the room. What are you seeing? What are you thinking? Today's Text: Luke 7: 36-40, 44-48 This reflection was offered at First United Church of Christ/DC as part of our confirmation trip to Washington, D.C. Simon, the well-established Pharisee. Jesus, the wandering rabbi. An unnamed woman with long hair. A house. A meal. And dirty feet. Today’s story from the Gospel according to Luke contains a lot of vivid images, none more vivid than the unnamed woman letting down her hair, dripping tears on Jesus’ feet and then gently anointing them with oil. It’s not only ...
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I think one of the challenges for us in a congregation that identifies with the progressive, liberal, more open view of Christianity is to navigate the religious and political disagreements that will be in our midst. Today's texts - Galatians 1: 11-24 and Luke 7:11-17 Last week when folks in the congregation were posing questions about many things, one question had to do with people who disagree with us. I talked about listening, about realizing that I might have more to learn, that there were occasions when I could even be…wrong. And then someone asked whether some of those folk...
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Come with me on a quest for Wisdom. Today's texts: Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31 and Romans 5: 1-5 Listen again to those words that began our first scripture reading this morning: Doesn’t Wisdom cry out and Understanding shout? Atop the heights along the path, at the crossroads she takes her stand. By the gate before the city, at the entrances she shouts: “I cry out to you, people; my voice goes out to all of humanity.” So come with me on a quest for Wisdom. Given that I’m a pastor, you might well expect that my quest for Wisdom would begin with a sacred text, like our Bible. Th...
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Two Pentecost threads: listening in the midst of things we don’t understand and dealing with the discouragement of a world that sometimes seems to be running off the tracks. Today's texts: Romans 8: 14-17 and Acts 2: 1-21 I’m not much of a builder, but I’m a pretty good errand boy, so a number of years ago when I was part of a mission trip to Nogales, Mexico, I was the one sent out with the car for various errands. Transport the crew, get some food, go to the hardware store. Of course, going to the hardware store in Nogales – we’re not talking Home Depot here – involves knowledge of a cou...
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Paul may have freed the slave woman from her possession by a pithian spirit… but he did not free her from being a possession. Today's texts: Acts 16: 16-34 and Revelation 22: 12-14, 16-17, 20-21 There is an amazing cast of characters in the story we heard today from the Acts of the Apostles. There are Paul and Silas, of course. As they begin to expand the reach of Christianity out of the Middle East to the edges of Europe, one of their first stops is the city of Philippi in Macedonia – what is now in the northeastern part of Greece. It was a major Roman outpost with Greek heritage...
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