It Starts Now Acts 1:1-11 Ascension Sunday Well, here we are, on the seventh Sunday of Easter, thinking about what it means to build a church. We’d expected that Diana Butler Bass would be here, however, due to Amtrak tragedies and airline delays, you’re stuck with me today, on ascension Sunday. Today’s passage from Acts is the very beginning of the book, Luke’s starting story. It invited the first disciples and it invites us to understand that one very essential... Read more
Blowin’ in the Wind Acts 10:44-48 In these weeks following Easter here at The Riverside Church, we’ve been talking about building a church, reading in the book of Acts about some of the experiences of the very first disciples as they tried to figure out what a gospel community looked like in the wake of resurrection—how they might institutionalize the gospel message in such a way that it would take root in their communities and do its work of transformation... Read more
Thirst Mary Oliver Another morning and I wake with thirst for the goodness I do not have. I walk out to the pond and all the way God has given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord, I was never a quick scholar but sulked and hunched over my books past the hour and the bell; grant me, in your mercy, a little more time. Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my... Read more
Elevator Speech Acts 4:5-12 Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Today is the fourth Sunday of the season of Easter, typically known as Good Shepherd Sunday—you’ll notice many of the texts in worship today reference that metaphor for Jesus. But we’re sticking with the assigned texts from the book of Acts for these weeks after Easter, following the adventures of Jesus’ first disciples as they struggled to find their footing in the light of resurrection. Remember that Jesus had... Read more
“From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.” I’m pretty sure James Joyce wasn’t thinking of the minister’s experience of Holy Week when he wrote that sentence filled with deep and resounding truth, but any minister who has made it, breathing, to the other side of Holy Week will tell you: these words could have been penned for us. This year, for example, it was my full intention that anyone in attendance at our Holy Saturday Easter Vigil... Read more
Changing Our Minds Acts 3:12-19 Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Good morning, and welcome to the third Sunday of Easter. Though many of us grew up with the idea that Easter was one day, in truth the calendar of the church year gives us a whole season of Easter…and it’s a good thing, because getting our minds around resurrection is going to take awhile, isn’t it? You may have noticed that our theme in worship for these seven... Read more
Yesterday I had the incredible opportunity to offer the opening prayer at the White House Easter Prayer Breakfast. Loving and gracious God, we come here today with gratitude for your way of love, a love that death could not destroy and a tomb could not contain. With that acknowledgment, we also confess that we struggle with the brokenness of our world and the responsibilities we bear. You came to proclaim Good News to the poor, but too many of... Read more
The Rest of the Story Mark 16:1-8 Easter Sunday I’ll bet it felt a little like sleep-walking, or, maybe like making your way through water with heavy weights strapped to your hands and feet. The Sabbath was over, and three of the women who had followed Jesus for years and who had walked with him all the way to the cross, who had supervised his burial, needed to return to the tomb to finish embalming his body. So, despite their... Read more
What we’ve done tonight as we’ve listened to Rev. Janka read the gospel text from Mark’s gospel is, in effect, peered into the dynamics of a family dinner. You know those, right? They are the dinners where, from the outside the scene can easily be described objectively, like that famous Norman Rockwell painting of Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone is leaning in over the table glancing happily at each other. The mother is proudly bringing in the turkey with Dad gazing on... Read more
Conflicted Mark 11:1-11 Today is the final Sunday in the season of Lent, the last time we’ll be together for Sunday worship in this place this year before we celebrate Easter. For weeks now we’ve been engaging in holy conversations about our lives, about our faith, about how our faith is lived out in the world. And part of the practice of Lent has been to confess, repent, reassess our lives for reorientation in the way of Jesus. Today, as... Read more
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