Wednesday, April 1, 2020 | Reflections
None of us are sure of how old we are—seven or eight years old, maybe. We sleep against the walls of other peoples’ homes. Sometimes they see us in the mornings, and we get a little bit of breakfast, but they don’t ever talk to us. Today Jesus arrives ….(View...
Tuesday, March 31, 2020 | Reflections
Today, Jesus calls us salt—a high compliment. Jesus reinforces this by asking us to be salty in our relationships, indicating that saltiness is in tandem with peacefulness. Salty, faithful Christians can change the world. Salty people season the families, communities,...
Monday, March 30, 2020 | Reflections
While on one of his preaching and teaching walks, Jesus overhears the disciples arguing about the greatest among them, and he lets them know how he feels about this conversation. Maybe they are trying to understand Jesus’ explanation of the kingdom. The disciples...
Sunday, March 29, 2020 | Reflections
Years ago, I was rector for a large parish in Mozambique. This particular story takes place after the busyness of Holy Week services, during a long, joyful Easter morning service with dancing, singing, praying, preaching, and readings—and more dancing and...
Saturday, March 28, 2020 | Reflections
This one verse from Mark’s ninth chapter is a microcosm of the Biblical witness to the human condition and our dependence on God’s mercy. Understanding the Bible’s witness to God in Christ allows us to reclaim the Bible’s immediacy and integrity—for our world and...
Friday, March 27, 2020 | Reflections
Appointed bishop to the Philippines in 1902 and to Western New York in 1918, Charles Henry Brent listened and lived out the love of God’s own beloved. In the colonial outposts in Southeast Asia, he established thriving Christian communities. He campaigned against the...
Thursday, March 26, 2020 | Reflections
From The Archives: July 20, 1969Michelangelo’s greatest masterpiece, some would say, is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Like Nicodemus, he came to his work with mixed motives, but Michelangelo’s motives changed, and he stayed with his….(View this reading and...
Wednesday, March 25, 2020 | Reflections
Today is a day for names. In Isaiah, the promised Messiah’s name is to be Emmanuel, God with us, embodying the divine promise of protection to the children of Israel. Emmanuel—a redeeming presence in the midst of disaster. In Luke, Gabriel brings a mess….(View...
Tuesday, March 24, 2020 | Reflections
In 1980, Roman Catholic Archbishop Óscar Romero of San Salvador was assassinated while celebrating Mass. Romero lived a public ministry distinguished by speaking out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, and torture. While the Salvadoran...
Monday, March 23, 2020 | Episcopal Church News
Editor’s note: This story is the first in a series about how priests and lay members across The Episcopal Church are caring for one another during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have an inspiring pastoral-care story to share, send it to news@episcopalchurch.org....
Monday, March 23, 2020 | Reflections
An unaccompanied woman with a demon-possessed daughter initiating a conversation with a strange man will prompt some controversial responses. Even Jesus is prickly. Then Jesus blows God’s love and healing power wide open, negating ethnic, political, and social...
Sunday, March 22, 2020 | Reflections
When Jesus heals the blind man who hasn’t asked to be healed, it is Jesus himself who interprets this healing with dialogue and commentary. He explains the need to do the works of him who sent me…as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world....
Saturday, March 21, 2020 | Reflections
Thomas Ken was born in 1637 in Berkhampsted, Hertfordshire, England—the same village where my grandmother grew up. Ken was an Anglican bishop, royal chaplain to King Charles II of England, and one of seven bishops who opposed James II’s Declaration of Indulgence....
Friday, March 20, 2020 | Reflections
Earlier on this day, Jesus and his disciples are on one side of the sea of Galilee with a crowd of five thousand people. What Jesus blesses, breaks, and gives to meet the crowd’s need is a miraculous abundance of more than enough. The disciples don’t ha….(View...
Thursday, March 19, 2020 | Reflections
From The Archives: June 6, 1944What we call infinity in time and space is beyond our comprehension. Time is no more infinite in the dawn of the geologic past or in the millennium of the farthest prophetic future than it is now while you put into it what thoughts and...
