This is a sermon that I wrote for Christ the King Sunday. It was given to the American University Methodist Protestant Community and commemorates yet another year of their commitment to being a reconciling community. The scriptures that this sermon reflects on are, John 18:33-37, and Psalm 146 . In John 18, we see two leaders who represent two different powers. Pilot, the man in charge of this meeting, represents the Roman Empire. Jesus, the man on trial, represent the... Read more
I believe in God Incarnate. I believe in Jesus, the One who was some kind of man, not the mythical figure of the same name. I know it has served well at times, the fanciful Jesus created by persecuted followers, those hanging on to the hopeful stories that grew more interesting with each retelling. I also know how deadly it can be when you grasp onto a myth as if it were complete and real in exactly the way you think it to be. But the bottom line is that I think Jesus is exactly what it looks like when a human being knows that God and flesh are not opposites. When the belief in God Incarnate is the rule, not the exception. Read more
Recently, this question was asked on a Facebook page: “What do we do with White sensitivity?” I am grateful that we live in a time when we can ask these questions freely. They signify an underlying willingness to listen and learn. The hope that I see in the Emergent Church is a willingness to lean into these types of self-exposing questions and to find conversation partners who will help us delve deeper into our own psyches and open our hearts... Read more
In this season of anticipatory and happy holidays among a number of cultural and faith traditions, I want to focus on the subject of personal loss in relationships for a moment. I am grateful that there are some houses of worship that will offer “blue” worship services to address the spiritual needs of, and to comfort, those who have endured gut-wrenching losses recently. Loss. Loss is a subject that weighs heavily on all who encounter it, especially when the loss... Read more
As a Christian, I find the anti-Muslim rhetoric and prejudice, expressed in general and by Christian leaders in particular, appalling and contrary to the spirit of what Christ teaches. Fear produces irrational thinking. This irrational thinking, combined with prejudice towards specific groups of people, creates shameful and immoral behavior that future generations look back on and say “I can’t believe everyone back then stood by and watched and approved of (slavery, internment, segregation, etc.)” We are witnessing the same shameful... Read more
Back in May 2015 I was signed up for a weekend training in NYC with Phoenix Rising Yoga therapy. The day before I had the thought “I love learning new things; especially about yoga!” and suddenly a new deeper thought came in– ‘This isnt about learning dear. This is about healing.” Woah!! What have I got to heal? Haven’t I done enough deep work during the 8 months of yoga teacher training I completed in Novemebr? Such a silly girl–... Read more
Verbally abused in an unwarranted and shocking attack in my home this week by someone 4 years under my employ , I attempt to process what and why this happened. I nearly called the police in fear for my personal safety and pray for this person’s well-being as I ask the resurrected ONE in my heart to reveal a path to peace in the midst of my hurt. I look back and see the signs of months of resentment building.... Read more
For many of you, the gender binary simply exists as a pervasive framework around which you build your life. As a child, you accepted it. You existed within it. It wasn’t until adolescence or adulthood that you were required to understand it and decide how to respond to it. But for people like me, the framework is a scaffold. We are forced to live lives balanced on an unsteady plank, ever conscious of the noose around our necks. As children, most of us had no choice but to create careful lives of hypervigilance, teaching ourselves how to numb the fear and frustration and anger of being thus restrained. Read more
November is national gratitude month. With that in mind, I wanted to share a poem with you that I wrote about choosing gratitude, perhaps with grateful self-talk, even and especially, through the hard things. This poem is from the perspective of my “grateful-self” talking to my “needing-encouragement-self”. I hope you enjoy it. Radical Gratitude: Hearing the Call By Riley O’Brien PowellCome hither dear and hear the call,Through the rustling of leaves,The touches of fall,And tell me…Tell me... Read more
In many Jesus stories, the way things turned out, usually well, was completely unpredictable from the way the story began. It was almost as though Jesus’s friends could have prepared themselves best if they had said to each other, “OK, here’s the deal. Today, Jesus is probably going to blow our minds. Let’s pay attention.” Jesus was really good at paying attention, of course. There was the time They were in a crowd and a woman who had been sick... Read more
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