A Positively Poetic Priest

God of the Word, you are the tent God, pulling up stake to be wherever we roam. It is time for us to see who dwells in our midst, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen (preachingtip.com) One of my favorite movies growing up was the Lion King. I hope you've seen this children's classic. It's a movie that if you have kids, you cannot just watch once. At least ten years after the Lion King came out, Disney made the Lion King 1 1/2, a different kind of sequel. The movie starts with Timon and Pumbaa, the comic sidekicks, in a theater watching the Lion King. Timon starts to fast forward the movie and Pumbaa protests.  Pumbaa: Uhh, Timon, what are you doing? Timon: I'm fast forwarding to the part where we come in. Pumbaa: But you can't go out of order. Timon: Au contraire, my porcine pal. I've got the remote. Pumbaa: But everyone's gonna get confused. Pumbaa: We gotta go...

Christmas Day 2014 Eternal God, who sent your Word into this world to share your love and peace, Grant us grateful hearts and passionate souls that we may share your good news and word, through your holy and everlasting name. Amen.  You know the sensation, the fumbling in the dark, using only your fingers to feel for the familiar forms... the scraping noise... the moment the match lights up with the beginnings of fire... the haste to light the candle well and fully before the match is consumed and as your fingers feel the heat of combustion creeping closer. Bringing forth light in this world. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." The fascination in the scriptures with the dichotomy of light and dark has a profound influence on our theology. Through metaphor, imagery, and explanation, we use light and dark to make sense of the inner spiritual realms as well as the world around us. We still light candles in church, even though they are not ou...

Lord God, who created the wilderness, help us to listen to your calling, and follow in your paths, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen​ Advent. I've gotten a lot of questions from the students at the school about what Advent is. I've tried to explain to them that advent is a time of preparation, a time of reconciliation, of repentence. They don't always understand these words. They ask me, why do we have to prepare for Jesus? We need time to prepare, just like coming relatives. With one boy, I asked him if he has to do anything before his relatives come over, he told me, clean my room. I asked him if he had any cousins he didn't like, and what happened when they were coming over, he said, yea, I hide my toys. I asked him, what do you do when your best friend is coming over, he grinned widely and with enthusiasm said, I get out my cars. I couldn't help but grin along. So what do you think ...

I have another story. Another moment of God smacking me in the face. (Kind of like the rock story, which is here .) I've lived in Houston a full four months now. A whole season. A season in which the temperature has changed! (Much to my neighbors' chagrin actually.) Its been a huge change, one that I haven't been able to ignore at all. As much as Texas is still part of the same country and many things are the same, living in Texas has been a huge transition for me. And I cannot tell you how many times I have questioned this decision. While I have never once said to myself, I want to leave, I have asked myself a lot of questions along a similar vein: Why Texas? How can I live here? How am I going to get my snow fix? Why did I move away from all the people I know and love? In the midst of all my questioning and wondering, my church offered this Advent preparation morning retreat called Cup of Wonder. The gist is that you go for two hours, there is a speaker, you p...

16 November 2014 Proper 28 "God of our journey, you call us to an adventure, to venture with the treasures you have given us. When we fear, we refuse to risk, and our talents are buried and rotted. Free us from ourselves, from our dread of life’s chances, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen." (Revised from Bob Elden, preachingtip.com) I love the phrase from the collect this morning: "Grant us so to hear [the scriptures], read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them." During my time in seminary, it was sort of a catch phrase. There was so much about the scriptures, church history, theology, ministry, that we needed to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest... Even though we thought we already knew the stories and the major points about being Episcopalian, there is always more to learn. One of the things emphasized by my teachers was that parables need some inward digestin...

O God of love, who sent your Son to reconcile us to you, break our hearts so completely that the whole world falls in and is shown your love through us. Amen. A young disbelieving man goes to his local rabbi and asks him to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. The rabbi chases him away, so the young man finds Rabbi Hillel and asks him to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. Rabbi Hillel stands on one foot, says, "Love your neighbor as yourself. That is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary. Go and learn it." The story we heard this morning from Matthew is similar. Neither give complete answers. The young man still has to study the commentary. While the commentary, the rest of scripture is important, we are going to delve into what Jesus says this morning. Jesus answers the testing lawyer by falling back on two very orthodox and yet radical statements of the Torah. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all yo...

9.28.14   God of the vineyard, naming us to help create fine wine, you honor us, along with prostitutes and tax collectors, in your kingdom. When we are confused about our role, our part, guide us to your will, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen I have two brothers. I almost have the exact two brothers Jesus is talking about, one who tells you he will do something and does not and the other tells you he won't but then does. My brothers are not always consistent in this pattern, but it is their tendency. My youngest brother will accept when my Mom asks him to do the dishes and 45 min later, you'll find him sitting in the kitchen, dirty dishes still stacked all over and him listening to music "preparing" to do the dishes. He still swears he will do them... Just, when he is ready. The other has an adamant "NO." But he does occasionally do what he has said no to. Early this summer, I ...

I am a Millennial. There are no two ways about it. I was born in the late eighties. I grew up with home computers. There are many other things that point to my Millennial-hood, but those two things are enough to establish identity. But one thing I do not identify with as a Millennial is not going to church. I get asked often why people my age do not go to church and I am going to honestly answer for myself: I have no idea why Millennials do not go to church. On an intellectual level, I can point to many reasons and problems why someone would not want to go to church at this age of life. Church is on a day off, church is confusing, church is hard and requires talking to new people. Religion can be oppressive and close minded and becomes an institution which does not allow new ideas or growth. Millennials are not in leadership positions, people do not offer activities and classes geared for the age group... the list goes on and on. However, on a gut level, I do not understand. And I...

In the name of God who is the great I AM. Amen. This past week I was at a conference for Latino ministries in the episcopal church. One of the keynote speakers, who happens also to be a priest in Houston, talked about how Latino cultures are put into boxes by Americans because most Americans do not spend any time trying to learn about the cultural differences between different groups and nationalities. People see dark skin or hear a different language being spoken and make assumptions. But no one deserves to be put in a box. Mexican culture is different than Peruvian or Dominican. Not all Latinos like Mariachi bands, are Catholic, and eat tacos. Just like all Texans do not drink Shinerbock, drive trucks, and wear cowboy hats. Some do, but not all. I have learned. Another speaker, this time a woman bishop, talked about how we need to get out of our boxes. A slightly terrifying idea for an introvert, but it goes both ways, it seems. We hide in our own boxes putting other people...

This was my first sermon at my new Parish.  10 August 2014 Have you walked the labyrinth lately? Part of the reason I was drawn to Holy Spirit is the labyrinth which lays outside that wall. I have always found labyrinths to be a helpful practice for my faith and a good metaphor for the life which I have been leading. At face value, a labyrinth seems kind of pointless. It’s a giant circle that you walk around without really getting anywhere. You do get to the middle, but its by a circuitous journey that takes much longer than it would take just to go straight toward the middle. A lot of times life seems that way. I try to do one thing, but I end up having to do all these other things before I can get to what I want to do. But I have to trust the process. I have walked enough labyrinths all over the country to have realized that the point is not just to get to the center geographically, but to get to the center of life. It’s a small focused journey to God. It’s part of a larger wal...

You are sitting on the dark rocky shoreline of the Galilee, some of you standing in the edge of the water, not really watching the little children playing in the water, but definitely watching the small, rocking, wooden fishing boat, pulling the hair from your faces as the wind carries Jesus' voice to you as he teaches about the kingdom of heaven. Interestingly, no one asked Jesus what the kingdom of heaven is like. Jesus has a burning desire to talk about it though, because talk about it he does. At length. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are phrases used more than ninety times in the New Testament. We have a number of parables which talk about the kingdom of heaven, but we do not have record of anyone asking the question. But because Jesus tells us without anyone having asked, I assume its important. Why do we need to know about the kingdom of heaven? It seems that God cares about us, and in doing so, wants to share with us what home is rea...

The Allergy Friendly Church Communion Protocol A step by step guide to integrating allergy friendly communion wafers in your church. 1. Who needs them? Find out who needs allergy friendly wafers, what they need to be free from, and how many people already need them. Also, see if anyone needs sulfite free wine. (Be warned: once the allergy friendly community in your town finds out that you are welcoming people with allergies to participate in your service, you may find that new people who need allergy friendly wafers start coming.) 2. Aquire allergy friendly wafers that your members can have! (You may think this is a no-brainer, however, you would be surprised. Many people who have one allergy or intolerance, have multiple allergies. Many times it can be difficult to find wafers that are completely free of all issues.) Some companies that sell communion specific wafers are Ener-G and Almy . If an allergy friendly member would like to make their own, there are many easy r...