I believe in the insurrection.   Resurrection comes after insurrection, not before.  Resurrection is that lift out of the basement, after you empty your attic.  You live in the main house on the main floor with the stuff you need for living, not more, not less.   You become simple, just like you always said you wanted to be. You heard Jesus’ questions. He is always asking people, who want him to define himself, saying “who do you think I am?”  Why... Read more

Monday night, Bill and I got to have dinner with an old friend I haven’t seen in a few years. Among the myriad of subjects we talked about was his relationship with a man in El Salvador. Although the two could marry legally in the state where he lives, the United States’ immigration policy gives special rights to legally married heterosexual citizens that are denied to gay and lesbian taxpayers. Hence they cannot be together except for the few weeks... Read more

This week we bore witness to yet another tragic natural disaster. Tornadoes ripped through the Midwest killing dozens of people, many of them children just starting their lives. In October 2012, we saw Hurricane Sandy kill at least 125 people and inflict at least $62 billion in damage. The storm also killed 71 people in the Caribbean. We experienced a severe summer heat wave and a drought, which may prove more costly than Sandy. Researchers note that the 2012 drought... Read more

We made it through Easter and now Pentecost. Jesus is raised; the Church is born anew. We all deserve a vacation, don’t you think? Well done, good and faithful servants. I have been pondering what it means to live as a good and faithful servant ever since Lent. At Virginia-Highland Church, we hosted a foot-washing service during Holy Week. I remember relishing the story. The disciples are getting settled at the dinner table, chatting about this and that. Judas will soon leave... Read more

During a recent sermon, I read one of my favorite stories to the congregation. It is a book by Robert Munsch called Love You Forever. It tells of a mother who watches her son grow up through the years, longing to express the incredible love that all good parents feel for their children. In the story, the mother holds her infant in the rocking chair and sings: I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, As long as I’m... Read more

Last Sunday, we read from the Gospel of John. The text is a bit convoluted, a bit mystical, and simply amazing. The placement of this passage is weird in the flow of the lectionary texts. We made it through Holy Week, crucified Jesus, raised him, and were journeying with him through the days following his resurrection, when suddenly we are cast back to Thursday night, just before he is betrayed by Judas and arrested in the garden. Jesus is with... Read more

The Dalai Lama says that, while he knows nothing about death, not having died, that he imagines it a “new outfit, a new set of clothes.”  Wordsworth the poet said almost the same thing, “death is moving into a new room.”   Jesus people say, “O Death, where is thy Sting?”(I Corinthians 15:55) We know that Tyler Clemente and Trayvon Martin are dead and we are not naive about who else will kill whom else.  We know about Colorado killings and... Read more

I have a friend who is amazingly wise. He is probably reading this, but he will have no idea that I’m talking about him. I also have a couple of friends who are staggeringly smart. One is one of the world’s leading art experts and can lecture in multiple languages. He has probably forgotten more information than I will ever know. The other is a pastor colleague who reads ravenously and can take what he has read and integrate it... Read more

This Sunday is, of course, Mother’s Day. (You didn’t forget, did you?) It is a great Hallmark holiday, but not one of the holy days of the church. Many churches celebrate the day, and for many mainline churches Mother’s Day is the second most-attended Sunday. I quit observing Mother’s Day in church a long time ago. For one thing, during the last 20+ years, my congregations have been the type where people tended to go home to visit their mothers,... Read more