“Love the Lord Your God”
I wrote this piece more than nine years ago. And Flo and was repping Progressive even back then. I bet that actress is tired of playing that role by now. At any rate, I was looking through some old writings and thought this was worth reviving. We think too little about the Song of Solomon. […]
Chivalry
I wrote this more than a decade ago for a blog I was writing called “Heartstrings.” It may not be as sensitive to gender issues as some might wish today, but I think the ideas still hold. So here it is. Chivalry Yesterday Sara and I went to Appleby’s for lunch. As is my custom, […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A
First Reading Micah 6:1–8 Hear what the LORD says: Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel. “O my […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – The Beatitudes
Dear Friends, More has been written on the Beatitudes than I could read in a week. There can’t be anything new to say about them, can there? Still, having read them in Luke’s Gospel, in the setting in which Luke places them, I am going to presume to say something I hope will be new […]
Crucified Son of Man or Mighty One
Mark’s Chiastic Gospel Structure and the Question of Jesus’ Identity More than twenty years ago I was preparing to lead a Bible study on Mark. I began with the well known pair of verses that bookend the Gospel in which the heavens are torn. (At Jesus’ baptism and His death.) I then recalled that Mark […]
Receiving Your Inheritance – III Epiphany Year A
Receiving Your Inheritance started out as a weekly email I sent out to a couple hundred recipients, mostly members of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. Some were fairly topical, some, like this one, were reflections on some bit of the Lectionary readings for a given week. This one caught my eye because it’s for the […]
It Is Finished
This piece began life as a meditation on one of the Last Seven Words of Christ one Holy Week many years ago. I don’t think it makes much less sense today than it did then. In 1944, Lt. Hiroo Onoda was sent by the Japanese army to the remote Philippine island of Lubang. His mission […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A
First Reading Isaiah 9:1–4 (5-7 added in italics for context) But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Second Sunday after Epiphany, Year A
First Reading Isaiah 49:1-7 Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Baptism of Our Lord, Year A
First Reading Isaiah 42:1–9 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – Holy Name
First Reading Numbers 6:22–27 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – 4 Advent, Year A
First Reading Isaiah 7:10–16 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – 3 Advent, Year A
First Reading Isaiah 35:1-10 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, […]
Jimmy
Of all the short stories I’ve written (there aren’t really that many) this is my favorite, about Jimmy, the sexton in a large metropolitan parish, and a very special Midnight Mass. Jimmy Jimmy opened his housekeeping closet and withdrew the longest of his step-ladders. He’d need it to reach the Madonna, and tonight, She had […]
Divergence on the Lectionary – 2 Advent, Year A
First Reading Isaiah 11:1–10 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the […]
The Christmas King
(Twenty years or more ago during the week before Christmas Eve I was pondering what it was about the baby Jesus that led the shepherds to recognize Him for who He was. From those meandering thoughts arose this story that I used as a sermon, I think. Now, twenty-plus years later, the images of walls […]