Good morning, friends. Today’s gospel is part two of the story of Jesus casting out demons. Last week you heard Kevin’s lovely homily. So, I pick up here where he left off. And this homily purposely has the provocative title “The Exorcist”. Exorcism. What an embarrassing word. What an overheated, overwrought, embarrassing word. Exorcism is…
The Bible has two parts. The first part is called the Old Testament. All of the books in the Old Testament were written down before Jesus was born. The stories of Jesus, the Gospels, are in the New Testament. Testament is a funny word, right? What does it mean? It means: I want to testify…
If you’re like me, you’ve been doing a lot of therapy baking and comfort food cooking during the pandemic. And what’s more “comfortable” than treasured family traditions and beloved recipes?! That’s true whether they go back generations or began when you started your own family. During Emmanuel’s January 24, 2021 coffee hour, we shared stories…
February is my birthday month. The last day of the shortest month of the year to be exact. Born in a year divisible by five, I am not a leap-year baby. On February 28, I will turn one 6 shy of 666. I am just now entering the latter half of my seventh decade upon…
Read more One 6 Shy of 666 (or) Auditioning for “The Golden Girls”
The first reading we heard this morning was from Deuteronomy. It’s one of my favorite books from the original testament, but it can be a little hard to understand. Moses is talking to the people who followed him out of Egypt, escaping slavery and the power of Pharaoh. They’ve been wandering for a while, and…
He told me, “I have built a life that is perfectly balanced. I’m like a trained seal. I’m standing on a rubber ball, with a tray on my flipper, stacked with porcelain plates and cups. If I make a move in any direction, it’ll all come tumbling down.” * * * My family moved to…
Regardless of how historic this past year has been, I didn’t keep a quarantine journal. What would have been the point? Every day was exactly like the last one: a few thousand more Americans dead and nowhere for the living to go. While my family, and general situation, were fine, I still had lingering blue…
Note: Kristin Neubauer’s story is a work of creative nonfiction, based on the experience of Maya Husseini, Lebanon’s premiere stained glass artist. Illustration by Margaret Wohler. Tick. The second hand on Maya’s watch moves six-tenths of a millimeter to the right, the click of the cogs lost in the space of cathedral’s soaring arches. In…
Good morning to my younger friends at Emmanuel! I hope you all have had a good week. I am so happy to be with you all this morning talking about our Gospel. In our Gospel Jesus is preaching in Galilee which is near the sea. And he tells people “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom…
Our texts this morning have a very apocalyptic feel. We start with Jonah telling the people of Nineveh “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Then Paul reminds his brothers and sisters in Corinth that “the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they…
