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A Saintly Scent – Camp Phoenix 2015

Grace and peace are yours from the living God, Amen. I was wondering this week how you might know when you are around a real live saint.  Do you ever find yourself wondering that?  Like, we know already from our time together that saints can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  They can […]

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#WalterScott and Doubting Thomas

Relevant Lectionary Text TW: Walter Scott Shooting Video Grace and Peace are yours from the Risen Christ. Amen. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Oh Thomas. We give Thomas such […]

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Wisdom of Weirdos

Relevant Lectionary Texts Grace and Peace are yours from the God of Wisdom and Light. Amen. Revelations.  Realizations.  Epiphany.   Like a light coming on in the darkness. God breaks into our lives in a way where suddenly everything is different. We can see.  We know something now that we can’t un-know. Something that changes everything. I […]

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Lizards and Leadership

Relevant Lectionary Readings Grace and peace are yours from the Triune God. Amen “The whole congregation of Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the desert. ‘If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for […]

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A Little Bit and a Little Bit More

Relevant Lectionary Readings Here Grace and Peace are yours from the Triune God, Amen. Alice loves to have me read to her this retelling of a Kenyan story. In this story, “Mama Panya’s Pancakes”, Adika and his mother are on their way to the market to get some ingredients for dinner that night.  They’re going […]

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Heaven and Earth (Ascension)

Relevant Lectionary Readings Grace and peace are yours from the Risen Christ. Amen. They wanted Jesus to do what they thought he would do.  Most of them had traveled and lived and worked with him for years.  And then, they had spent 40 days with him after the resurrection, eating, and listening, and learning some […]

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Home Is Wherever I’m With You

Relevant Lectionary Readings Audio Here Grace and Peace are yours from the Risen Christ. Amen. The Gospel reading for today is often referred to as Jesus’s “Farewell Discourse.”  It features an intense conversation between Jesus and his disciples.  The disciples had just witnessed a dramatic exit by Judas,with the taste of bread and wine still […]

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Come. Eat.

Relevant Lectionary Readings Audio Grace and peace are yours from the Risen Christ. Amen. My daughter Alice is from Sierra Leone, in West Africa, and so I’ve spent quite a little bit of time there.  And in Sierra Leone, dinner is usually eaten a little bit later, around 8 or 9.  There isn’t much electricity […]

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On Doubt and Love

Relevant Lectionary Text View Video Grace and Peace to you from the Risen Christ. Amen. The scene in the Gospel reading for this second Sunday of Easter stands in stark contrast to the lilies, and baskets, and bonnets we normally associate with this season.  In the place of victorious trumpets, and bright colors, and ham, we […]

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Birth and Bumperstickers

Relevant Lectionary Text Grace and peace are yours from the Triune God.  Amen. The Gospel reading for today features a conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus.  Nicodemus came to Jesus, looking for some sort of tidy formula or neat checklist about how to be a part of the kingdom of God.  What Jesus gives him instead […]