The good thing about the lectionary—or the bad thing, if you see it that way—is that we must read together and grapple with scripture we don’t like, with passages that make us uncomfortable. For me, this week’s gospel reading (Luke 17:3-10) is one of those; a passage I personally find strange at first glance. In the parable it includes, Jesus seems to advocate domination of the slave or servant in the story, advocating a power structure in which some people... Read more
In the earliest photo of us, I am concealed behind the bloom of Wren’s baptismal gown while they are ruby-faced, captured mid-scream. It’s an inauspicious snapshot of the relationship to follow. But leap-frog four years. I wait outside Wren’s preschool to pick them up. They’re travelling home with me and godfather Gilberto, my then husband, for their first sleepover. Wren spots me, hunches their shoulders and grins the way they might look at a baby bird. They’re so elated they... Read more
Learning to kneel took me decades. It was not something I did in my upbringing; and before I could kneel, I needed to know why. Then I learned to kneel at a communion rail each Sunday, taking into my hands a small wafer and drinking a swallow of wine from a common silver chalice. The kneeling was part of the ritual’s grounding, of the receiving. Then I learned to kneel as I said the ritual “prayer of repentance”: I have... Read more
I am somewhat haunted by a woman I passed in Florence, Italy while vacationing in the late 90s. Since my teens I had dreamt of visiting Florence, and then there I was—living out the fantasy. But one day walking down a side street, I saw this woman. She apparently had Hansen’s disease, formerly called leprosy. Draped in black tatters from head to toe, she appeared to beg as she quickly passed—her bandaged hand perpetually holding out some kind of sign.... Read more
A close friend is going through a time. Many of us have been there: that place where old habits catch up to us and we are shunted onto new pathways—if we are to survive, and most certainly if we are to thrive. These crossroad experiences are painful, but they are also what transformations are made of; they are what turn us wise. Looking back, most of us wouldn’t trade them though they involved humiliating mistakes, costly failures, wear and tear... Read more
In the lectionary, we’re reading about lost things. Specifically, this past Sunday, the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin (Luke 15:1-10), which—along with the parable of the prodigal son—may be Jesus’ most beloved teaching stories. Many of us can relate to being lost and being found; we appreciate these images of God because we need them. On the other hand, those terribly self-satisfied and self-righteous may find these passages unsavory. In our self-righteous moments, we prefer others to... Read more
Because I am no expert on the royal family or Queen Elizabeth, I find myself in the days following her death listening while not speaking or writing much about her. As I listen, I am most impressed by the fact that people loved her. Despite ambivalence about what she represented (namely, an empire that has, even in the past hundred years, been unthinkably callous), she is a person much loved. In part, this is due to her “heart,” a word... Read more
“I will follow you wherever you go,” people told Jesus (Luke 9:51-62). But then they hedged, thinking of what needed doing, of what others might think if they went all-in with the spiritual life. In a family-oriented culture like that of the Mediterranean, people thought of family obligations: I must go and bury my father; I must say goodbye to those at home. In the story in Luke, Jesus says, “Let the dead bury their own dead.” In modern American... Read more
Recently I sold a soul-cottage I built in 2007 on the cusp of Oregon, 15 minutes’ drive from the beach, and bought a small house in a town I vacated in 2004, vowing never to return. Yet return, I have. Health and allergies eventually drove me from my coastal-rainforest refuge. But why return to Yestertown—as I’ve come to think of the new old town? So much history trails me in this place. That may be the point, I suppose: homecoming—at... Read more
Everything we read, including everything we read in the Bible, is colored by culture, and in this week’s lectionary gospel (Luke 14:1, 7-14) we certainly encounter cultural elements I’ll skip over. I want to focus on something else—specifically, an idea that appears repeatedly in the teachings of Jesus; the idea that ‘the first will be last and the last will be first,’ or as it’s stated in this passage: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble... Read more
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