Forward Day By Day – April 2, 2018

I am intrigued by family stories—those narratives, myths, legends, and secrets passed down from generation to generation that often give people a common sense of identity. These stories allow us to travel between timelines and geographic locations, and we experience...

See and Testify

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Jesus the Gardener

Both the lectionary readings and the Daily Office readings for Holy Week tell again and again how Christ Jesus was seen after the Crucifixion. The women at the empty tomb. The skeptical eleven. The disciples fleeing to Emmaus. But the one that touches me the most is...

Noli Me Tangere

by Linda McMillan John 20:1-18 When someone precious is no longer there — through death or distance — look for the love. It may be hard to recognize, but it’ll be there. Somewhere.   Jesus was betrayed, he has died, he has been laid in a tomb,...

Forward Day By Day – April 1, 2018

I have a hard time putting myself in the shoes of friends we find in the Bible because they come so close to obviously holy things and live to tell the tale. It is comforting when they act human every now and then—when they find themselves caught up in the actual...

Easter

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Eyewitness

My name is Miriam. It’s a common name in my world, and there were at least three of us who stood at the bottom of the cross yesterday as our leader and Rabbi hung there, a victim of Jewish jealousy and Roman fear of insurrection.   While no women had ever...

Forward Day By Day – March 31, 2018

As we finish our journey through Luke, we hold in tension our participation in the worship services of the Triduum—the three days that recall the passion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. In this final reading from Luke, we can understand the disciples’...

Running on Empty

Daily Office Readings for Good Friday, 2018: AM Psalm 95 [for the Invitatory], 22; PM Psalm 40:1-14 (15-19), 54 Lam. 3:1-9, 19-33; 1 Pet. 1:10-20; John 13:36-38 [AM]; John 19:38-42 [PM]   Psalm 22 is the “classic” Good Friday psalm, and it’s one of those where...

Forward Day By Day – March 30, 2018

While today we mourn with Mary and the disciples as we recall Jesus’ death on the cross, our journey through the Gospel of Luke takes us beyond his death to his resurrection and the walk to Emmaus. Emotions fill the hearts of Jesus’ two followers as they walk. Hope...

Forward Day By Day – March 29, 2018

Imagine being with a beloved friend as the last breath is slowly exhaled. Soon the sheet is pulled over the body. You step outside to collect yourself. When you reenter the room, you are dismayed: The bed is empty and the covers rumpled. Out of the air step two...

The Container We Were Given

Mark 14:12-25 This morning I poured water into an ordinary glass, and I was suddenly struck by what an astounding container it is.  This tumbler is not very special.  We bought a set of them years ago in some store like Target.  But it is a miracle of design...

Forward Day By Day – March 28, 2018

There’s this odd clause here in Luke’s crucifixion narrative that we often gloss over: “The curtain of the temple was torn in two.” To ignore this phrase is to whitewash a crucial event: The shattering of the age-old distance between us and God. The curtain...

The Meaning of Judas

Among my vivid early memories is a betrayal. I was in seventh grade, at a middle-school Halloween dance, dressed in the football uniform I’d borrowed from the boy I liked. The year prior, my best friend—the most cherished friend of my youth—moved away. But that...

Forward Day By Day – March 27, 2018

Several years ago, we were driving home around midnight on a busy interstate. The car ahead of us veered into the ditch and rolled several times. A man exited the vehicle and began walking toward our car, which we had pulled over to the side. And then he did the...