A Positively Poetic Priest

a year, a year! a year in poetry! a year of sorrow and joy of confusion and mission of tenderness and shame a year of naming abstract thoughts that defy and untold emotions streaming forth from the sky a year of speaking to myself a year of writing for my future a year of sharing of my soul a year of listening a year, a year! a year of uncounted voices of perspectives unforetold of lessons I had forgotten and morals I wish were sold a year of changes and changelessness a year of blue hope and hopelessness of quiet words and tearless cries a year of what cannot be said but must, oh must! be shared because at the last its only us we must tell, we must share in poetry, if nothing else! please listen, listen to the secrets under-girding this year, this year

Have you ever been listening to a piece of music, enjoying the melody, flowing along with it... when all of a sudden the melody completely changed? (Play music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moL4MkJ-aLk ) Many would describe the way the melody changes in Sir Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 as sudden. Most people would say that they know the song Pomp and Circumstance, but Sir Elgar actually wrote five different Marches with the same name. The No.1, which we heard, starts with large brass fanfare and a full string melody which includes the musical whip banging in the background before all of a sudden going into the much softer fluid grandeur of the what we all associate with Pomp and Circumstance. Perhaps you could hear the audience's surprise in the form of laughter when the melody suddenly changes. It was an unexpected turn of events.  We as Christians have gotten so used to the idea of waiting for Jesus to come. Every year we wait, spending Advent wai...

"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."  As we sit here today, we are at a turning point in our year. As we approach the end of our secular calendar year, we also have come to the end of our church calendar year. This is the last Sunday after Pentecost and next week we will celebrate the first Sunday of Advent, which begins a new church year. In our lectionary calendar, we have come to the end of our journey with the gospel of Luke, and so we hear today the climax of Luke's great story, the story of the crucifixion. This may seem like an odd gospel passage to hear on this Sunday, however there is good narrative sense in hearing this story today. Sometimes we may question what the lectionary committee was thinking when they put together the cycle of readings, but as a group of seasoned priests and lay people of the church, we can trust that they had a reason for this choice. In my own study and sitting with this passage this week, I have come to the ...