Posts filed under: Sermon

Holy Fire

The Church turns its attention to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. But we cannot turn to the Jerusalem of scripture, history, and memory and neglect the Jerusalem of the present moment, or those living and dying within and beyond her walls and call ourselves Church, Christians, or followers of Jesus. For, though the...... Read More

The Shadows of Easter

Let us pray: In the name of the One who waded in the waters of Miryam’s womb, walked the way of suffering as one of the woman-born, and woke from the grasp of death in the deep darkness of the morning. Amen.   Easter is beautiful. The warmth of the vigil fire; the light of the...... Read More

Strategies of Resistance: A Lesson From Daniel

  Teach us to use the power of our words to tell the story that liberates us all. Amen. There is more than one way to tell a story, especially a story as important as the Christian story; this also applies to the stories that make up our sacred stories. Today we explore that plurality...... Read More

A New Covenant, Enduring Faithfulness

In the name of the faithful God who has redeemed us, Amen. The days are surely coming, says the Holy One, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Jeremiah 31:31 It is almost impossible for Christians to not read the new covenant in Jeremiah 31...... Read More

Of God, Men, and Kings

  [Errata: Originally I confused Samuel’s sons with Eli’s. The manuscript is corrected below.] (Preached at the Schooler Institute on Preaching at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio) Let us pray: ברוכה את יה אלהינו לב העלם אשר שמה לב עלינו ושומעת קול לבינו רחמי עלינו וישמע קול דממה דקה Blessed are You, Yah our...... Read More

Conspire With the Spirit

In the Name of the God who breathed us into life, breathes through us, and will return our breath to us at the resurrection. Amen. In beginning, when beginning, at origin… Our story begins with a word that takes us to the dawn of time. In beginning of what would become the world, God created,...... Read More

Live Your Theology Out Loud in Public

Today is a commissioning service of sorts. [Hooding, conferral of academic hoods at Brite Divinity School, December 2017.] We confer degrees and the regalia that pertains to them to send you forth, forth across town, across the state, across an ocean, across the world, sometimes just around the corner, sometimes back to us for another...... Read More

Extraordinary and Everyday Saints

See what love our Creator has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know God. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do...... Read More

The Forehead of a Whore

#MeToo. I am one of the many, many women who have been targeted, touched, sexually harassed or assaulted and lived to tell the tale. But all of us did not survive our attackers. We were exposed to that which we did not want to see or touch, forced to experience that to which we did...... Read More

The Bull in the Church Isn’t Idolatry

  Exodus 32:1-14 Moses came down from the mountain where he experienced the glory of God face to face to discover that there was some bull in the Israelite community. They were worshipping bull at the foot of God’s holy mountain. They had their bull all up in God’s face when they said, “These are...... Read More