Results for "Do Justice"

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you. I want to pray in peace, to pray for justice in this world, but I think of the the brutalized, the enslaved, the run-over … and I am in rage. I think of the tortured and exploited and rage rises in me like a fire and consumes my… Continue reading Rage

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                                     Easter sunrise service we gather on snow frozen hard. We shiver and shuffle for warmth. The sun is late coming up over the bare trees. Resurrection seldom comes in a flash, Jesus in the flowery garden. The woman in labor knows. This path can only… Continue reading Christ is rising

                Christ, though godly,                   did not cling to divine status,          but in complete self-emptying                   accepted the life of a slave,                   a humble human,                   vulnerable and mortal,                   subservient even to death on a cross.                            —Philippians 2.6-8 Gentle God, your Jesus faced profound evil and confronted injustice and violence not with great force, but with humility, powerlessness… Continue reading Servant

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                 “Hosanna!          Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!          Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!          Hosanna in the highest heaven!”                   —Mark 11.9-10 Jesus presents some street theater, the new life enacted among us. People love it for the moment, but… Continue reading Faith

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                 What will it profit you to gain the whole world                   and forfeit your life?          Indeed, what can you give                   in return for your life?                            —Mark 8.6-37 To be truly alive is to be fully, freely, lovingly present in this moment, drinking in the grace of God and… Continue reading Truly alive

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                 As new subscribers to the Blizzard of the Week Club we were hit hard enough by the last one that yesterday we held no services at the church building. (Four-foot snowdrifts at the front door, six feet at the back.) But we didn’t cancel worship; we… Continue reading Shut out

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                 As new subscribers to the Blizzard of the Week Club we were hit hard enough by the last one that yesterday we held no services at the church building. (Four-foot snowdrifts at the front door, six feet at the back.) But we didn’t cancel worship; we… Continue reading Shut out

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                 Jesus said, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.                   —Mark 1.38-39 The Empire… Continue reading The mending of the world

                There was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And… Continue reading Cast out my demons

Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.                           I preached and led a retreat on prayer and poetry at the Presbyterian church in Shepherdstown, WV this last weekend. It’s a lovely bunch of people. They explored fearlessly and shared deeply. They inspired me, not by the certitude of their beliefs but in the depth… Continue reading The church of last resort