Rejoice and Repent

Let us pray: Blessed Mother, teach us to say yes to God. Amen. This is Joy Sunday. If we still spoke Latin as a Church, we’d know it as GaudeteSunday in part because before it tells us not to worry about anything, Philippians says: Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say, Rejoice! Gaudete (rejoice) in...... Read More

Majesty, Mercy, and Mystery

Welcome to Trinity on the last Sunday of the Christian calendar, the Sunday in which we proclaim Christ’s sovereignty and wrestle with the limitations of human language. Let us pray: May God who is Majesty, Mercy, and Mystery travel with us from cradle to cross. Amen. Our lessons are trying to do two things, end...... Read More

What Does the Bible Say About Sexuality?

National Courageous Conversations Part VI: Sexuality with Dr. Wil Gafney, Dr. Cleotha Robertson, Dr. Rodney Sadler and Quonekuia Day.

Courageous Conversations is Jude 3 Project’s national gathering that pairs African American voices trained at conservative evangelical seminaries or divinity schools with African American voices trained at mainline seminaries or divinity schools to discuss controversial topics.... Read More

Redeeming Qayin (Cain)

In the name of God whose mercy is just and whose justice is merciful. Amen. Zillah gave birth to Tuval Qayin, who forged every kind of implement of bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal Qayin was Naamah. In my sanctified imagination I envision what it was like being Tuval Qayin, saddled with the...... Read More

God Is Bigger

  I could preach all four readings in one sentence: God Is Bigger. But we live in a time when clichés and bumper sticker theology won’t cut it, even if they’re true. We face serious issues, serious life-threatening, heart-rending issues. In the face of incarcerated children crying for mothers they’ve been told abandoned them, politicians...... Read More

How Long Shall Justice Be Aborted?

Dr. Wil Gafney at Christ The King Posted by Traci Blackmon on Sunday, October 7, 2018 Violence. A single word of scripture begets a thousand words. The prophet cried violence, screamed violence; hurled it at the skies and the God veiled within. Violence. Violence all around. Habakkuk’s people were under siege. He doesn’t tell us...... Read More

When Gomer Looks More Like God

Some men love to call women whores. Some women do too. The biblical writers use the word whore and accusations of whoring freely and freely attribute them to God. Reading a text like Hosea can easily have you convinced God–or somebody–is fixated on women’s bodies and sexuality as though we are the genesis of everything...... Read More

Wisdom’s Table is God’s Table

In the name of God who reveals herself to be more than we ever expected. Amen. The insistence that God is male and only male has not rung true to more than half the people on planet from the time the Israelite Judean elite began to codify their sacred texts shaping the religions that have...... Read More

The Gospel and the Cross Are Political

In the name of the crucified God who bids us take up our cross in this crucifying world, Amen. In the scriptures the Wisdom of God is presented as a capital-P-person. She is a companion and co-creator and, in some texts enables God’s creation of the world. It seems to me that the sorting out...... Read More

This Is My Body: The Womb of God

Christ: Our Mother, Our Brother, Our Savior [Title from Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love] I didn’t stay quite long enough in Hawaii to avoid the bread and circuses season of preaching that has “bread of life” texts padding our lectionary with metaphysical carbohydrates through the end of the summer. And having sat through...... Read More