A few weeks ago at Emmanuel’s Zoom Coffee hour, my friend Meredith led a discussion of the very first places we would like to go post-pandemic. And I blurted out without hesitation: “I want to return to that happiest and most sacred of spaces: The Library of Congress!” It has been a year now and…
What season is it? The season of winter, of course. It’s cold outside! It’s even snowed this past couple of weeks. I hope that wherever you live, you got enough snow to go outside and play in it. Build a little snowman. Do a little sledding. Catch some snowflakes on your tongue. The church also…
The Merriam-Webster definition of “simplify” is “to reduce to basic essentials.” Lent is the time to spiritually simplify. On Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, preparing to fast, traditionally we clean out our cupboards and fridge of all that sugar and butter. (The reason for all of those pancake suppers!) Flowers give way to greens on the…
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…
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”
NOTE: Parents, this is a homily you should definitely listen to and talk about with your young ones. It’s also longer than usual. This week we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.: a pastor and a civil rights leader who is also a saint. He is a saint because he stood up for justice and equality…
It will come as no surprise to many of you that I have been a bleeding-heart liberal from my earliest days. A teenage rebellion, I am sure against my tastefully conservative Republican mom and dad. A straight A student, I rebelled in hippy dippy ways. I skipped school to protest the Vietnam war. I served…
Or listen to audio only. Today in the book of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, we hear the story about the very first day of creation. It is a story of beginnings. That is what Genesis means. In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a…
Wednesday this week was a history making day. One that will live in infamy. Depending on your generation, you can probably answer one or more of these questions: Where were you on December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day? Where were you on November 22, 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated? Where were you on September…
