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September 18, 2023byRacial justice and healing is not primarily about feeling shame or guilt for the profound racial injustice that has always been part of life in this country. It’s about all of us, together, finding healing and liberation.
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August 27, 2023byWhat, really, are the values of God? The longer I live, and the more I study the gospels, I am more convinced that God values love, mercy, and justice above coercion or domination. As I recognize my own shortcomings and weakness, I am hoping that the judgment of God is tempered by love, mercy, and justice.
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August 21, 2023byDo we need to expand our understanding of how God operates? Jesus did not come to change God's mind about us. Jesus came to change our mind about God.
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August 14, 2023byWhen you slip beneath the waves, where are the people who look for you, notice, and dive in to pull you to the surface when you lose your strength to swim?
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April 17, 2023byDo you have doubts and fears about the accuracy of these stories? You’re in good company, both in scripture and in church! Do you believe? You’re in good company, too, in scripture and in church. I might advise you that much of scripture warns against letting our believing become too certain, too rote, or too presumptuous.
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April 17, 2023byIf we really want to know God, we must expand our understanding of sanctity to include suffering. If we really want to know God, this week offers a fairly direct path, through the Love that engages suffering. If we really want to know God, we must drop the defenses and trust the process of Love. Think about this. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ . . . who emptied himself.
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April 17, 2023byMaundy Thursday is a transitional night, marking an end and a beginning. In each, we remember and celebrate the amazing, loving action of Jesus. Tonight we mark the end of Lent. We put away the pottery communionware and bring out the lovely silver as we remember Jesus’ institution of the Holy Eucharist, his the promise to us that he is really with us in the breaking of bread. We remember the blessing of holy sustenance, Jesus’ gift to his friends. Tonight we also mark the beginning of a new community. As we begin the sacred Triduum, the three holiest days of our year, a remembrance of Jesus’ three day journey into death and new life, we re-enact Jesus’ service of washing his friends’ feet. We remember his final humble and loving action before he was betrayed. All the things we remember change who we are and what we shall become. In fact, the very experience of the sacrament we celebrate - the ritual that comingles physical signs with spiritual meaning - makes real the mysterious salvation of which we speak. Human salvation flows out from the Love at the center of the universe. The gospel story we have heard offers us a slightly different perspective from the synoptic gospels on what Jesus did that evening. This does not mean that one gospel is “true” and others are not. The nature of perspective means that every person tells a unique story. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell the story of the supper of the Lord, recalling the origins of Holy Communion in a dinner gathering, without including the footwashing. Jesus reinterprets the Passover seder in the context of his own death and the kingdom that is to come. The salvation of God is given a more universal context. The Gospel of John focuses on footwashing. John talks about a gathering, but not about a last supper. For John, Jesus’ assuming the role of the servant is more important. This reveals the depth of his love. This is the kenosis to which Paul refers in Philippians. Washing feet was the work of a servant. Jesus begins his final teaching by serving. In the lengthy discourse that follows (three chapters of final words of wisdom), Jesus tells his friends about his death and what it means. He tells them that they must love one another. By his action, he reveals the core of their identity. If the Son of God can wash feet, so can his followers. There is no shame. There is only Love. You can be sure that his friends never had their feet washed again without remembering the night that Jesus washed everyone’s feet (including Judas) and how that changed their understanding of leadership. John can include the story of footwashing and omit the details of the supper because the other story was simply so well known. Paul knew the story of the supper and so did the authors of Mt, Mk, and Lk. John is the last of the canonical gospels to be written. Everyone who heard or read John’s gospel would have known about the supper of the Lord. John expands the theology of who the Christ is, because John wants to support the reader’s faith. What the gospels have in common is that after his action – either blessing bread and wine or washing feet - Jesus says to his followers Do this. Do as I have done. In the scripture, Jesus is an surprisingly non-directive Messiah. He does not say this sort of thing often. We need to pay attention. When Jesus says Do this, with respect to washing feet, he is echoing the words he spoke at the supper in the other gospels. When Jesus says Do this in the GJohn, footwashing moves into a eucharistic context. When Jesus asks Do you know what I have done to you? he is asking his friends to recognize something about how they must be with one another as a community. He establishes the necessary role of humble service in the life of anyone who intends to follow him. It is a bit surprising that the washing of feet is not a sacrament, as we have sacramentalized every other dominical command. Perhaps we have chosen to leave the nature of humble service undefined, so it would not be understood so rigidly that there is no room for expansion. Like Peter, we are pretty squeamish about getting our feet washed. Inviting participants forward generates a feeble response. I know people who will not participate if they haven’t had a recent pedicure. Our feet do a lot of hard work, and they are icky at the end of the day. And that is the point. Jesus’ willingness to wash feet is a sign of deep love: there is nothing about us that is too gross for our Lord. Jesus loves us, all of us, including the ick. We need to get over our shame and squeamishness - and then go out and share that understanding with the world. When we come to the supper of the Lord – to the holy banquet we call the Eucharist – we are doing as Jesus commanded. We do this in memory of him, every week. If we take and eat, and go back out into the world without committing ourselves to serve others in his name, we are missing something. We take and eat the sacrament so we can BE the living sacrament in the world that needs Christ so desperately. With humility. With a generous spirit. With love. Let us remember that – and go and do likewise.
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April 17, 2023byEach of us is an evangelist - literally meaning a bearer of Good News. Each of us has abundant opportunities to bring blessing along with us in our daily life. This week, and every week,
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April 9, 2023byGod interrupts despair with boundless hope.
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March 6, 2023byRepentance - choosing to turn back to God - offers the opportunity to experience a spiritual re-birth, without the prerequisite of a dramatic accident or illness.
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February 26, 2023byWill you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers? What are we waiting for? Lent is all about remembering who and whose we are. The opportunity to turn to the way of new life is in front of us.
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January 10, 2023byThe whole story of Christmas reveals a surprising collection of people who are drawn to make a pilgrimage to encounter Jesus: hardscrabble shepherds, singing angels, mangy beasts, foreigners, fishermen, gentiles. Epiphany is the opening of God’s scandalous story of salvation: the Messiah is revealed and is followed by sinners, lepers, tax collectors, the impure, centurions, gentiles. And the Messiah, the Christ, in the middle of the group, leads us from the crèche to Heaven and to Golgotha at the same time. It is not what they expected. Surely it is better than anything we could have hoped for.
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January 1, 2023byThose who follow Jesus and are baptized take upon themselves the Holy Name: a Christian is anointed in the name of Holy One, Jesus the Christ, marked as Christ’s own forever.
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December 25, 2022byIf there is any sense of peace that we can find on this day, it is not in a Santa Claus sort of God, who gives us random gifts. A sense of abiding peace can be found when we perceive the abiding presence of the God who willingly shares in the fullness of human life.
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December 18, 2022byToday, as we hear the story of Joseph and his dream, we are invited to consider framing our own dreams in terms of God’s dream and our faith.
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December 5, 2022byGod always offers new life, which emerges out of the deep roots of the old life.
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November 29, 2022byAdvent is not Lent. In Lent we embrace an extended reflection on death - the death of Jesus and also our own - and Christians often embrace practices of fasting, giving alms, and doing penance for sin. In Advent, we reflect on our anticipation of the coming of the Messiah. Christians can do this on at least three levels, reflecting on the birth of Jesus the Christ in Bethlehem (coming to visit us in great humility); the return of Christ at the end of time (at the unexpected hour); and the welcome we may give to Christ in our hearts.
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November 7, 2022byWhen the saints come marching in, all the blessing will overwhelm the brokenness of this life, including our own brokenness.
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October 31, 2022byHere is the good news of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of which I continue to be absolutely certain: God longs to heal all which is broken in our lives and in our relationships. God desires the mending of the breach and the making of the broken heart whole again. I believe that God invites all of us to take part in new life. When we receive that gift of restoration and of healing, we can respond tangibly, with acts of gratitude, so others can also find new life. That is what true stewardship is all about.
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October 24, 2022bySo please do not be afraid. God is Love, and is stronger than Covid, stronger than death, stronger than our fear of failing. Stewardship is not a competitive process. True faith and humility mean that we could worry less.
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October 9, 2022byWhere is God for you when you are wandering?
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October 3, 2022byYou can always come to God. Bring your selves, bring your critters, bring your friends and partners, bring your tired and broken hearts. Know the rich and merciful love of God for all. Find your joy and find your rest.
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September 26, 2022byMy friends, now is the time to mind the gap: the gap between us and God’s expectations for us. We need to be wary of the gaps we construct - and we need to consider how we can cross them. We have just come through a series of Sunday readings that teach us about giving to God all we have and all we are, because we are the called to take part in the building of God’s Kingdom. Today we hear that same message again, this time in the context of our fundamental unity. In the Kingdom of God, we are all connected, we really are family - and if there is an Original Sinfulness, it is rooted in the idolatrous claim that one of us is better than or more important than another. That is the Great Lie.
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September 19, 2022byJesus believes that his followers are capable of what he himself has been busy doing: healing, forgiving, telling the truth, and proclaiming the kingdom. We need to embrace the holy economics of God, to be as clever as the manager in today’s gospel, with a different goal: serving our real self-interest, alongside the best interests of the world that God loves, by building up the Kingdom of God. What will happen when the good people are as clever and ambitious as the scalawags?
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September 6, 2022byJesus asks his followers Which of you does not sit down and estimate the cost? He says this because to choose to follow the way of faith has costs and consequences. Every choice we make can offer us a blessing and will exact from us a price. Every choice demands that we consider our priorities. This teaching sounds harsh, as Jesus demands that we choose where our allegiance lies.
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August 28, 2022byTo be included is not a reward for a good life. Inclusion and justice are a way of life. This is the banquet to which God invites us. We are meant to be one people with many differences. This is not a universal vision, even among those who say they follow the way of Jesus. Yet if we actually read the gospels, this is the path to which Jesus calls us: peace, inclusion, justice, love. Always LOVE.
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August 21, 2022byThe Gospel speaks a new word into old patterns. And that new word is liberation! God in Christ frees us from whatever binds us. God heals us. God gives us rest. Let’s engage deeper in this modern interpretation – our own interpretation – of Shabbat. How refreshed would we feel if we took off one day every week? What if for 24 hours, we didn’t work, didn’t fret over cleaning or running errands, and didn’t feel the pressure to check items off our “to-do list” at the first sign of free time? What if for just one day a week, we refused to feel guilty for resting? Now I can hear you thinking: “If only I didn’t have so much to do”
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August 14, 2022byWe are those called to go on with the fire of passion & zeal despite the obstacles. In his day, Jesus was up against the authoritarian rule of the Roman Empire, one of the largest & strongest known on earth. Pontius Pilate gave the order to crucify Jesus who dared to stand against the power of his day because people were cheating the poor in the Temple. It’s hard to imagine such an important shrine, but that Temple money affected the whole economy of the region.
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August 8, 2022byMost of us are inclined to think of transfiguration as a change, because the appearance of Moses and Jesus seems to change. But really, who changes? Are Moses and Jesus suddenly different people? Or do the witnesses change, as they peer through an opened spiritual door and witness God’s glory manifest through them, coming to understand themselves differently?
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July 31, 2022byJesus challenges us to consider: who and what are really precious. Are we expanding our hearts in the same way we want to expand our closets and storage spaces? Because it is through genuine love and generosity that we find security. The foolishness Jesus calls out is rooted in a denial of the importance of human relationship, across a diversity created by God.
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July 26, 2022byWhy do we pray? Because our deepest longing is for God, and God’s deepest longing is for us, and prayer is how that longing gets satisfied.
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July 20, 2022byIf religion has a positive role in our future [as humanity], it will surely involve specializing in the formation of holy desire. In fact, for better or worse, religion is supposed to build our desire to learn about God. Each religion does this somewhat differently, and all to the good. Thus, hospitality is important as a context for the spread of the message about God, and it is even more important to BE disciples who care for others. We cannot be Martha without being Mary also.
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July 17, 2022byThe power of Christ’s humble incarnation is that we are enough. We are enough, because Christ is enough. In coming to us in the flesh, our flesh, God has invited us into relationship. God has revealed God’s self to us, and we are invited to kneel like Mary, at the side of the manger, at Christ’s feet, and at the foot of the cross.
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July 4, 2022byA nation is not defined solely by its laws, regulations, and policies, nor by its elected leaders – a nation is also defined by its values. American values – equality, liberty, justice, government by consent of the governed, a mutual concern for the general welfare – these values are part of our national identity.
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June 27, 2022June 26, 2022, Third Sunday after Pentecost: The Church and Change, by the Very Rev. Dr. Amy D WelinbyInstead of thinking that civilization has begun to disintegrate or that our personal spiritual beliefs are threatened as the church labors to speak to those who live in the 21st century, I wonder if we might choose to look on changes as steps in turning our eyes toward what God needs us to do. How do our lives, our words, our actions reflect the majesty of God, who loved us enough to be willing to die for our sake?
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June 25, 2022byWe are all like Elisha. As disciples of Christ, we have just marked Christ’s dramatic death, resurrection, and ascension. And now, on the other side of Easter and Pentecost, we have to learn how to live in this new season, what the Church calls “ordinary” time. How can we, as the inheritors of the Holy Spirit, follow in the footsteps of Christ, turning our back on the ways of the world and testifying to God’s death-defying, death-destroying love?
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June 20, 2022byWe all live in a world filled with powers that work against us: disease both physical and mental, natural disasters, economic uncertainty, violence and war, prejudice. It is easy to feel as if we live a hellish existence: isolated, abandoned, and defeated. It is tempting to demonize people unlike ourselves. Jesus is willing to step into our story and change that.
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June 13, 2022byWhat can God as Three in One say to us, especially if we find the Creed difficult to embrace or when we may not feel inclined to be professional theologians?
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May 29, 2022byCan we believe that a generous unity is possible across our many differences? Do we work in the spirit of our baptismal covenant? I want to say yes, and there are weeks when it feels as if we are swimming against the current.
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May 23, 2022by‘“The church of Christ witnesses to the end of things…It lives from the end, it acts from the end, it proclaims its message from the end.”’ The knowledge that Christ died and was raised on the third day is good news -- not just for my and your personal salvation, but for the good of the whole world. As a people of resurrection hope, we shouldn’t fear the end but embrace it because our God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things.
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May 22, 2022byHelen knew how to love, and she loved widely and deeply. Every time that she gave some of her love away, it grew in another soul, so that it could be given away again. Think of the love that was given to you as a seed. Now it is your responsibility to tend to that seed so that it matures into a plant that produces seeds of its own. Love begets more love.
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May 19, 2022byJesus knows his time has come. He has challenged the social, societal, religious and political authorities to change their ways and begin to live by the values of equity, fairness, & truth held up to the community. So he prepares his followers with one basic rule known from the beginning of time, to love one another. This will be the sign. Not perfection, not achievement, not power, nor wealth, who your parents were, or from where you came, but only if you have love for one another.
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May 12, 2022May 8, Easter 4: Good Shepherds, Bummer Lambs, and the Power of Love, by the Very Rev Dr Amy D WelinbyWe may feel broken, we may feel fragile or rejected. We hear many loud voices telling us that we are unworthy, sinful, and deserve to suffer. The voice of the Good Shepherd blesses and liberates, but does not condemn or oppress. The voice of the Good Shepherd offers abundant life and not diminishment of humanity.
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May 2, 2022byShame is the ultimate connection killer, for it tells us that our flaws make us unworthy of love. The exact opposite of Jesus’s new commandment to love each other. Shame mutters in our ears. Its voice somehow finds the express lane into our hearts and heads. Its voice identifies deeply hidden, deeply rooted insecurity and toys with it, amplifies it, multiplies it. We live in a world where most people still subscribe to the belief that shame is a good tool for keeping people in line. Not only is this wrong, but it’s dangerous. Shame is highly correlated with addiction, violence, aggression, depression, eating disorders, bullying, and suicide.
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April 25, 2022byJesus permitted Thomas to examine the evidence. Jesus doesn’t object, I expect, because Thomas could have said that he wouldn’t believe even if he saw the evidence. Thomas was open to the possibility that the evidence would change his life and faith. On this first Sunday after Easter, Thomas offers us a surprising and unlikely role model. He wanted to see the evidence. Having seen it, he acted. Like Thomas, we need to be open to the evidence, and to act on what we learn.
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April 17, 2022byFaith in a risen Christ is a lived reality. It is better than the chocolate!
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April 16, 2022byTonight’s fire is a signal that there is a much greater and more powerful flame… and that we, with our Bic lighters, gas grills and tiki torches are puny in its sight: The Light of Christ.
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April 15, 2022byEach loss we experience places us in the shadow of the cross, wondering how this could be happening, agonizing over our powerlessness, waiting for the transformation promised by Jesus. What do we do in a time such as this?
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April 14, 2022byBeing washed clean may well mean becoming open to receiving the freely given, unconditional love of God enfleshed in Jesus. Pastor Caroline Lewis writes “The washing in the Gospel makes possible having a share with Jesus, being in relationship with him, in his community, in the fold, as opposed to being cast out, or going out, like Judas.” Please note that even Judas’s feet were washed by our Lord.
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April 12, 2022byWhat we expect – the way a holy life works, what victory looks like, who merits inclusion - is all upended in the reign of God. God does not send suffering. God endures suffering along with us.
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April 11, 2022byWhen we contrast the vision of Palm gospel with the narrative of the Passion gospel, the dissonance we feel is not resolved by finding someone to blame: Judas, the Temple authorities, the Romans. Does it matter? All sin falls short of the glory of God. The question for us is what shall we do about it.
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April 3, 2022byHow has this season, situated between the twin terrors of pandemic and possible global war, formed your soul? Today the scripture lessons ask us to consider the work of our very lives in the context of Love.
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March 27, 2022byForgiveness is a power of God to release the wrongdoing, the sin from humanity as a whole, and from individuals like me, like you.
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March 20, 2022byIn the Name of the Spirit among us Who is One, Holy, and Living within each one of us, drawing us into community, calling us to be one, and sharing love with us all. For many of us we see those who are sick, who are injured, who die, who are poor, who are swindled out of money - it’s their own fault. Some of us say, “They should have been more careful, they should have been more aware, they should have known better.” We learn from an early age, and sometimes incorrectly, what is right & wrong. I know from personal experience when I was very young that if you don’t eat your peas when they are warm on your plate during dinner, you stay at your place after dinner and finally eat the cold peas that make you gag, and throw up all over your plate. What happened? I got sick, and who is to blame? The one who let their peas get cold. I did the wrong thing. If somebody cheats at school or is a bully, what happens? Somebody gets in trouble, if they are caught, and who is to blame? The cheat or the bully who did the wrong thing. Even when your older sister does something wrong or spiteful, it doesn’t allow you to hide her favorite doll. Who gets in trouble? The one who hid the doll and was in the wrong. This is what is drilled into us over and over again. We have ample Scriptural evidence, perhaps the bulk of Scriptural evidence boldly proclaims the same. This is one reason why it is so hard to bring others into the church. Our Holy Wisdom found in Scripture is fraught with oppression. Scripture begins with stories of the sinful Egyptian Pharaoh oppressing the Hebrew people and the sinful Pharaoh is punished at the hand of God. The Hebrew people are divided between those who follow the God of Moses and those who don’t follow. Those who do not follow, are swallowed up by the earth as sinful and as punished at the hand of God. Then there are the prophets, pick any one, Elijah challenges the sinful prophets of Baal who lead the people into excessive self indulgent & total narcissism which Elijah knows will ruin the whole society. Elijah dramatically shows the people the emptiness of this life so the sinful prophets of Baal must die by those who follow our loving God. Who is to blame, the sinful. What do people take away? Some take away that our Scripture doesn’t lead to a Holy life, it doesn’t lead to Wisdom, and it doesn’t lead most of all to love. Blame is what those in the crowd in our story today are seeking. We often seek the same. Jesus doesn’t answer every question around this issue in today’s story, but we are left with a new appreciation for the Wisdom found within Scripture as we seek with a discerning mind. When the government authorities ordered the death of those people in Galilee, some were thinking, “That’s the way this tyrant is. He executes the opposition. We all predicted this would happen. Why didn’t they listen?” It is much easier to brush it off as, “Those people could have avoided death, if they only got along like us. So we’re sorry they died but it’s their own fault. They are to blame.” Jesus uses the Galilean's death at the hands of Pilate to understand that cruelty, punishment, illness, and death; all of it is not because they were being punished by God. Although they were the ones who died, they were the ones who were powerless in the face of someone or something beyond their control. Were they worse sinners because they died? Jesus says, “No.” Then to emphasize his point further he offers yet a second example contemporary to the people of his day. “Those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them were no worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem.” That was a totally random tragedy, and that also lies outside our understanding. Our response is not to place blame, but to respond in love. There are times when blame is used conveniently to absolve ourselves from guilt. Today our last lesson begins with Jesus teaching the people a new way to understand the tragedy that befalls our neighbor. The good Samaritan story of the distinguished authorities walking past the beaten man in great need is an example. The one who has compassion is the despised, lowly Samaritan. Compassion is the response. Our text draws today’s lesson to a close with this little story about how we are like a fruit tree. If a fruit tree bears fruit well and good. After it has reached an age of bearing fruit, if year after year of reaching maturity it continues to produce no fruit, we may cut it down to begin again. With people, we must have the wisdom to understand that when life produces no fruit within us, we must begin again. When others after reaching an age of responsibility produce no compassion, we must begin again. The training we thought would work, the schooling we thought would work, even the punishment we thought would work, but did not, we must throw out the past process, and begin anew. Because we are called to respond with compassion. The lesson we need to take from Scripture is that we who follow with love, hear the cry of the people, as the God of Abraham did with Moses, and those who hear that cry as the God of Abraham did with Moses respond with compassion saying, “I will be with you.” May it be so.
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March 13, 2022byLent offers an eminently valuable opportunity to return to the remedy for our human tragedy, which is the love of God. Lent invites us to remember our identity. We are holy people who err and sin, and who are invited to reach into God’s deep forgiveness, most especially when we struggle to offer forgiveness of our own.
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March 7, 2022byThe entire Lenten exercise of repentance - turning back to God - is about remembering our beloved identity, as individuals and as community.
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March 5, 2022byGod enters our ordinary life all the time, infusing it with glimmers of glory. As we move through our days along with other people of God, the highlights and lowlights of ordinary life reveal the presence of God. In the moment, however, I do not always perceive the sparkles. Do you?
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March 5, 2022byThe passage from Luke’s gospel is a beautiful description of how disciples live as if we are part of the Reign of God. When we hear this as a command, it is a hard teaching. Love my enemies? Some days I can hardly bear my friends! How would this change if we can hear it as an invitation to a new way of being? Jesus invites his followers to adopt the spiritual disciplines of love, generosity, and selflessness as tangible signs that we are the people of God on earth, even when our context is one of conflict and oppression. The irenic response to injustice is neither simplistic nor passive. Nor is it the equivalent of being “nice.” It is instead the kindness of wishing grace upon another person, who is as imperfect as we are. In fact, the word for “kind” (chrestos) is related to the word for grace (charis).
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March 5, 2022byWe are beginning our third year of ministry in the context of disruptive global pandemic. Despite the stress and difficulty, 2021 offered us abundant blessings. My greatest fear these last several years, beyond the possibility of falling ill, has been that we would be unable to perceive the presence of Jesus Christ among us because we have been so focused on the crisis. The faithful endurance of a holy life has been our theme. What has worked well in pursuit of holiness? What can we leave behind? What shall we do next?
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March 5, 2022byGod has blessed us all because we are loved, with all our internal fractures and anxieties. Remember that. and please go out into the world and do likewise.
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March 5, 2022byBaptism is a lot more than a little water poured over the head. Baptism changes everything.
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March 3, 2022byLent is not about rushing toward a false spiritual positivity. Positivity is not the antidote. Lent is about recognizing the pieces of our lives that have fallen down to ashes, and turning back to a spiritual path that will return us to life.
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November 28, 2021byHow shall we find a way to live in faith and with less fear? We can pick up our heads and look for a familiar face: the face of Christ, who walks with us. This spiritual discipline requires imagination, as we need to see Christ in those who are walking into the woods with us.
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April 4, 2021by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinHow do we know that the new life of Easter is coming? Because Peeps and chocolate bunnies and pretty butterflies – our cultural symbols of new life – pop up in every store, right?
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April 3, 2021by The Very Rev. Dr. Amy D WelinFor centuries, before live-streamed movies, Google, and audible books, ancient people relied on story tellers and poets for news and entertainment.
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April 2, 2021by Chloe SellesMy dear friends, it is such an honour and a joy to speak to you at this Good Friday service. I wish that I could see all your faces looking back at me from your favorite pews, but I’m grateful that we’ve had the opportunity and space to celebrate Holy Week together, even if it’s virtual.
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March 30, 2021by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinIn a church I served some time ago, there was a calligraphy note taped in the pulpit: We want to see Jesus. Isn’t that just the truth. We look in all sorts of places and are surprised when we do not see the Savior for whom we search.
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March 29, 2021by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinIt has been a long year. Here we are – disciples – and we have been on the arduous journey with Jesus. Today we bring our palm branches and praises – and our hopes and yes even our fears.
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March 13, 2021by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinChurch trivia: What day is today in the church calendar? The Fourth Sunday is Lent is Laetare Sunday or Mothering Sunday: the day we rejoice. Rose vestments mark our joy that we are half of the way to Easter.
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February 17, 2021by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinStarting today... God invites us to a holy lent. This is not about giving up anything. We have already given up so many things.
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February 13, 2021by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinDo you ever look up at the stars in the winter sky and marvel at the wondrous nature of the universe? I have stepped out on several cold, clear nights, and the striking brilliance of the stars never fails to amaze me.
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February 7, 2021by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinMany of us have been thinking about what will happen after the pandemic. Just as the pandemic has changed us – giving us a new concept of personal space, leaving us more accustomed to working from home and using Zoom rooms for meetings – it is clear that some things are going to change.
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January 31, 2021by SSECThe purpose of our annual meeting is to review the financial and spiritual health of our church over the past year, to elect new members to our parish Vestry, and to consider new things.
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January 24, 2021by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinThis week was an emotional roller coaster, marked by prayer, loss, joy, and of course the pandemic. On Wednesday, I was really struck by the words of the inaugural poet Amanda Gorman: When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never ending shade?
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January 17, 2021by Ms S. Winnie SmithI don’t know about you, but if someone called out my name in the middle of the night, my response would not be “Here I am!” If someone called a second time, I might yell back. If they called a third time, I would throw something.
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January 10, 2021by The Rev Canon Fred MillerIn the Name of that Spirit among us Who is One, Holy, and Living, drawing us into community, calling us to be one, and sharing love with us all.
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January 2, 2021by The Rev Michael Nailor, DeaconGrace, peace and forgiveness to us all through Jesus Christ, our Lord! Every Christmas I am astounded at the variety of music that has been created to celebrate this season.
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December 25, 2020by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinHow do we get to rejoicing at the end of a year marked by disruption, loss, and contagion? What does the feast of the Incarnation of Christ mean in such a difficult time? Where do we find a sense of hope and lightness of spirit?
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December 20, 2020by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinThere is something about Mary.There is something remarkable about the woman who is faithful enough – and daring enough – and strong enough – to put her trust in the promise of God to fulfill something which is impossible.
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December 13, 2020by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinThe season of Advent immerses us in mystery, even on Gaudete Sunday when we rejoice because we sense that the Lord is near. Although we have lived in a worldly context marked and even defined largely by the Christian message of persistent hope and undying love, we can approach the Christ only through mystery.
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December 6, 2020by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinI had an interesting though brief conversation this week out on Cranberry Street. Greg & I had received a challenge gift, to be used for something charitable this Advent.
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November 29, 2020by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinWe mark the beginning of Advent, the first season of the church year, which focuses on our spiritual preparation for the coming of God. We ask for grace, so we can cast away the works of darkness and use the armor of light to transform ourselves and the world.
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March 10, 2019by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinPreparing for Lent, I read a compelling article in The Christian Century, in which a Congregational minister describes his life changing experience with an app on his smartphone. Called WeCroak, the app sends a text message to the phone five times daily.
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March 9, 2019by Mr. Ryan TobinEvery year, the church observes the season of Lent as a joyful and prayerful preparation for Easter. And every year, the first Sunday in Lent, we hear this Gospel story of Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by the devil.
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March 6, 2019by Rev Deacon Shayna WatsonThere are no more Alleluia's for the next 40 days. The colors have now changed from the vibrant green of ordinary time, into a deep purple, which is symbolic of pain, suffering, grief, royalty, and spirituality all connected to the incarnation of Jesus- God in the flesh.
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March 3, 2019by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinWe conclude the season of Epiphany with some dramatic scripture lessons. Brilliant lights and radiant faces, theological drama in Corinth, a voice from the clouds, Moses and Elijah show up for the transfiguration of Jesus.
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February 24, 2019by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinSitting down to study the lessons Wednesday morning as I watched the snow falling, I was struck that they all seem to focus on the wisdom that derives from the love of God. Now mind you, I was at the same time wondering aloud if there is a recipe for groundhog stew (an imperfect sermon illustration).
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January 22, 2019by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinI spent some time this week considering the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine. Well, if truth be told, as I considered the miracle, I thought about how terrific it would be to turn ordinary Harrisburg tap water into something suitable for communion wine: neither too sweet nor too dry, neither so deep in tone that it stains the linens, nor so pale that it tastes bitter, and of course, less costly than the usual stuff bottled by the distributor.
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January 12, 2019by Mr. Ryan TobinHere’s a question for you to ponder: Why did Jesus get baptized? If we look in the Book of Common Prayer (page 858), at the Outline of the Faith, there is a question: “What is the inward and spiritual grace in Baptism?” Or, to put it bluntly, “What do we get out of being baptized?” Here is the answer that the prayer book gives:
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January 6, 2019by Rev Deacon Shayna WatsonGlory to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Happy New Year and Happy Feast of Epiphany! We just transitioned from Christmastide and I’m sure most of you are excited to see the holiday come and go as you recover from spending your life savings on gifts and catching up on bills.
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December 25, 2018by Rev Deacon Shayna WatsonChristmas is here! Aren’t you excited!?! This is such joyous occasion! Aren’t you glad! We honor this day as the day hope re-entered into the world. This indeed is a joyous occasion, because of the birth of Christ, our Savior, the Prince of Peace, God with us in the flesh.
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December 24, 2018by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinEvery year we tell the same paradoxical story on this night. We repeat the story of the miraculous birth that was foretold by the Hebrew Scriptures. The Messiah was foreseen to be the king of kings.
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December 23, 2018by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinWhat do we do when life doesn’t unfold as we had planned or expected? When the dog eats the Advent wreath. When the cat climbs into the tree and breaks the middle limb.
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December 16, 2018by Rev Deacon Michael NailorGrace, peace and forgiveness to us all from Jesus Christ, our Lord! Amen! Now near the end of the year of our Lord 2018 during the reign of Donald Trump, in the 4th year of the Episcopate of Audrey Scanlan, when Amy Welin was acting dean of the Cathedral, the word of God came to Michael while he was in the country around the Susquehanna.
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December 9, 2018by Mr. Ryan TobinI want to tell you an advent story, a story from when I was a little boy -- maybe seven or eight years old. We were living in the Upper Perkiomen Valley of Pennsylvania -- a little sliver that lies right between the Philadelphia Suburbs and the Lehigh Valley metro area.
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December 2, 2018by Rev Deacon Shayna WatsonThe days are darker and it is indeed cold outside. I’m going to invoke my pop culture reference of the day, by saying quote from an HBO television series called the Game of Thrones by saying “Winter is here,” which describes an unbearably cold season and pending war.
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November 25, 2018by The Very Rev Dr Amy D. WelinI hope that your thanksgiving holiday was wonderful! We enjoyed our trip to New England to visit family. It was a big feast in a little country home, filled with extended and blended family and friends and two overexcited dogs.
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November 10, 2018by Mr. Ryan TobinI know that it is a cardinal sin to talk about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. But whenever I hear today's Gospel lesson (Mark 12:38-44), I am always reminded of something that happened to me one Christmas Eve. So I'm going to tell you a Christmas story, even if it is a bit early.
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