2014-01-02T12:20:15-05:00

Last updated on: January 2, 2014 at 12:20 pm   By

Lectionary Reflections on Epiphany Sunday – January 5, 2014 Isaiah 60:1-6 Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12 Some congregations will choose to celebrate Epiphany Sunday on January 5, using the readings assigned for the feast of the Epiphany.  This sets the stage for the expansive spirit of Epiphany. Epiphany affirms that God’s revelation is both global and local, within the Jewish tradition and throughout all creation.  Today, we can affirm that Christ is present in all faith traditions as... Read more

2013-12-27T14:55:21-05:00

Last updated on: December 27, 2013 at 2:55 pm   By

Lectionary Reflections for the First Sunday of Christmas – December 29, 2013 Isaiah 63:7-9 Psalm 148 Hebrews 2:10-18 Matthew 2:13-23 Salvation is global as well as individual.  This vision is at the heart of the incarnation. The world is saved one person – one creature – at a time.  God’s healing initiative is everywhere and joins the healing of nations and planets with the healing of persons.  We need a healing environment; our own healing also transforms the environment to... Read more

2013-12-27T13:08:10-05:00

Last updated on: December 27, 2013 at 1:08 pm   By

I am very appreciative of Robert J. Cormier’s Better Than We Believed (now featured at the Patheos Book Club). Cormier sees faith as a vision which shapes how we understand the events of our lives. Doctrines and dogmas are important, but derivative and somewhat relative in the living of our daily lives. While they may have a place in our faith, polarizing viewpoints on issues such as paper (scriptural) or papal infallibility, abortion, the virgin birth, science and religion, and the... Read more

2013-12-17T11:59:44-05:00

Last updated on: December 17, 2013 at 11:59 am   By

It is a great joy to read the words of another mystical author, Julian of Norwich, flowing through the creative and mystical translating of Mirabai Starr.  Her translation of The Showings of Julian of Norwich is exquisite and inspiring. I know Mirabai and count her as a friend, and recognize that her words come from deep within, from the still small voice, as the original author’s wisdom bursts from through her.  Her translation is truly holy and speaks to the... Read more

2013-12-13T18:28:00-05:00

Last updated on: December 13, 2013 at 6:28 pm   By

Angels are at the heart of the Christmas Season. Gabriel appears to Mary, announcing that she will be the mother of God’s Holy Child. Joseph has two angelic visitations: the first, to tell him that his marriage to Mary is blessed by God; the second, to alert him to flee to Egypt to save the Holy Child’s life. The magi have a collective dream and although no angel visitant is mentioned, their dream is a testimony to God’s guidance emerging... Read more

2013-12-10T13:04:50-05:00

Last updated on: December 10, 2013 at 1:04 pm   By

Lectionary Reflections for the Third Sunday in Advent  December 15, 2013 Isaiah 35:1-10 Luke 1:46b-55a James 5:7-10 Matthew 2:1-11 Healing the World  Advent is a time for hopeful transformation.  Creation and humankind lean toward wholeness; creation groans and so do we.  God is at world in all things, restoring the broken, healing the sick, and welcoming the outcast. Isaiah sings the glad songs of restoration.  “The wilderness and dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom,” the blind... Read more

2013-12-03T17:12:21-05:00

Last updated on: December 3, 2013 at 5:12 pm   By

Scholars, pastors, and laypeople alike are rediscovering the Jewishness of Jesus and the continuity between the first-century Christian movement and the Jewish tradition prior to and following the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, whom we Christians call Christ and Savior. Freed from replacement theories regarding the relationship of Judaism and Christianity and Hebraic spirituality and the teachings of Rabbi-Savior Jesus, we can understand Jesus in new and life-transforming ways. We must always affirm that Jesus was a Jew, who... Read more

2013-12-03T12:56:22-05:00

Last updated on: December 3, 2013 at 12:56 pm   By

Lectionary Reflections for the Second Sunday of Advent December 8, 2013 Isaiah 10:1-11; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12 John is a major figure in our Advent Adventures. Still, little is known about the relationship of Jesus and John the Baptist. According to tradition, when Mary the mother of Jesus meets her close relative Elizabeth, John leaps in utero in acknowledgment of the uniqueness of Mary’s son. Beyond that, the early life of John, later John the Baptist, like Jesus’ early life, is... Read more

2013-12-02T00:43:07-05:00

Last updated on: December 2, 2013 at 12:43 am   By

Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once described worship as an adventure of the spirit.  The same judgment could apply to preaching as well: preaching is also an adventure of the spirit especially when we are at the crossroads, dealing with a changing world and changing images of preaching and spiritual leadership. David J. Lose’s Preaching at the Crossroads: How the World – and Our Preaching – Is Changing accurately surveys the world to which the preacher must share her or his... Read more

2013-11-27T15:43:38-05:00

Last updated on: November 27, 2013 at 3:43 pm   By

I have just passed my sixty-first birthday. It seems like almost yesterday I was going to love-in’s in Golden Gate Park and partying with surfer girls and high school mates in Santa Cruz, California. Whenever we chat on Facebook, my friends from the James Lick High School (San Jose, CA) class of 1970 reminisce about old times and share photos of our grandchildren. Although we are in good health, some of our comments remind me of the bantering among the... Read more

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