Friday, January 15, 2021 | Reflections
One of the most significant concerns I have about Christianity is the way we have domesticated Jesus. In our story from Mark, the Pharisees are incredulous that Jesus eats with outcasts and sinners. Jesus is explicit: These people are who he came to eat with, and this...
Thursday, January 14, 2021 | Reflections
Why do we always think that building a wall is a way to make peace? Walls to keep things out (or in) are a band-aid solution, at best. Walls do nothing to address real issues of how we live together, no matter where in the world we live.The image of walls is a...
Wednesday, January 13, 2021 | Reflections
Behind Jesus’ miracles and ministry is a habit that is easy for us to miss. He always had a rhythm to his life—a balance between extreme communal work and time alone. I admit that I struggle with following Jesus’ rhythm of intense work and intentional….(View...
Tuesday, January 12, 2021 | Reflections
Fame spread throughout the land regarding Jesus. And yet, popularity was not at all what he had come to attain or seek. Jesus was continually saying, “This is not about me—this is about the kingdom of heaven and my Father who sent me. See that in me.” Jesus sought out...
Monday, January 11, 2021 | Reflections
When the world seems out of control, words like the ones from our reading in Isaiah soothe me. At one time or another, all of us get a little carried away with our importance—surely with God, we must know just how important we are, how profoundly loved we are....
Sunday, January 10, 2021 | Reflections
Two distinct theologies have developed around baptism. One, I call magic, and the other, I call decision. Magic requires no real change. Magic is terrible theology. God loves the unbaptized person—and indeed everyone, entirely, now, already—no matter what we do....
Saturday, January 9, 2021 | Reflections
Julia Chester Emery served as the national secretary of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Board of Missions for forty years, from 1876 to 1916. For the Episcopal Church, perhaps her most significant and longest-lasting legacy is the United Thank Offering. The ….(View...
Friday, January 8, 2021 | Reflections
Harriet Bedell was an Episcopal deaconess, first working with the Cheyenne people in Oklahoma. Later, she continued her work with indigenous people in Alaska, where she started a school in the small village of Tanana, a town I was blessed to visit several years ago....
Thursday, January 7, 2021 | Message from Bishop Thompson
My dear friends, In times such as these often our need for centering comes in the form of what we know to be true, scripture and our Book of Common Prayer. I invite you to pray with me over the next several days a couple of prayers. The first is a prayer for peace:...
Thursday, January 7, 2021 | Reflections
Our guide in Cana told us this joke: “The wine is so bad in Cana that if Jesus were here today, he would turn the wine back into water.” I am not prepared to debate the truth of that statement, but Cana, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Jericho, and Hebron are all still...
