Harrowing Of Hell

Aunt Maria and Zeal

“Zeal for your house will consume me.” That is a word I get excited about, zeal. It is a word that gets a bad rap—a zealot, a person blindly compelled by an idea, irrespective of its costs, particularly cost to relationship. I believe zeal means just the opposite. I believe zeal is all about relationship.

It’s Okay to Feel What You Feel

Good morning Christians, seekers, and friends! How are you doing this first Sunday in Lent? This time I ask this not as a nice segue way into my sermon – be nice to the people Ruth Anne so they’ll want to listen—but because in my experience, in the average Christian year, we seem to really

Simple Stories

Simple stories are important. And the ones that matter most to me are the stories of my family that I carry with me. But I have not always understood this. You see, I, like a lot of American folks, used to think (and if I am honest, still sometimes do) that the big stuff that

Authority and Liberation

Good morning. We have a short piece of scripture today that revolves around the word authority, and so, with the authority vested with me, that is the word that I am going to preach about today. Let’s begin by reviewing where we are: Jesus is in Galilee. He has just begun choosing his disciples. There

Fishing with Pelagius and Augustine for a Trinitarian God

Today I want to preach about the state of our nation, and while the January 20 inauguration was honorable and majestic, as it should be, I am still troubled by what happened at the US Capitol building  on January 6. The memory of signs and symbols asserting that it was a Christian sanctioned movement: a

Forthtellers of the Gospel

Good morning Christians, seekers, and friends: How are you doing? Where do you land on a scale from one to five?  I know we were all looking forward to this New Year and the vaccine that it promised and promises us but so far, as a parishioner recently wrote me, this new year hasn’t necessarily

Where the Wild Things Are

Good morning Christians, seekers, and friends: Welcome. It is well that you have come. And we are made better, more whole, with you here as a unique and important part of the body of Christ. Now the phrases above are a little like a definition of or even a little of the etymology of the