A Positively Poetic Priest

As a priest in the Episcopal tradition, I deal with plenty of funerals and funeral planning situations. One of the best things you can do for your loved ones is make a plan for your funeral and make sure the paperwork and your wishes are known ahead of time. So many people feel uncomfortable talking about their own death and it leads to their loved ones having no idea what to do when they do inevitably die. All your loved ones want in that moment is to mourn. They don't want to have to make decisions. All funeral homes and churches are happy to help you plan your funeral ahead of time. We have forms which make it easy to go through all the steps and think about all the options, and we will even keep these forms on file for you. All your loved ones need to know then is which church or funeral home to call once your time has passed. So be proactive! Make a plan. Write it down. Put it together with your important bank information and other necessary documents for the time and let your...

How far can you journey at the moment? With everything on lock-down, we may be talking your biggest journey today is the one from the bed to the couch. Or perhaps you have gotten out for a drive or a walk in the fresh air.  I've been trying to get outside for a run, walk, or bike ride everyday, which is easier some days than others.  Lent can be a hard time and sometimes we forget we are on a journey especially since  most of us aren't journeying anywhere right now. We are staying at home. But even at home, we are on a journey. In my house, I sometimes forget where things are because it so big, and when I walk into the rooms I don't use very often,  its a whole journey of rediscovery! I find things I forgot I had. But even at home, we are on a journey. The season of Lent is always a journey. A journey through repentance, confession, reconciliation, renewal. A journey with God of self-discovery through our Lenten ...

I first met Robin Murray in April of last year. I was here for my interview visit and she and I and Kaycee and Kathy Rogers went to breakfast at Amazing Foods together. I remember that breakfast fondly for many reasons, pretty much all of which had to do with the company I found myself in and the conversation we had (and of course, partially because of the delicious food). What Robin told me that day was that she was a golf widow, which was also my first experience with that term. Kim, Bear to his friends, was seriously fond of golf. From what I have heard, he golfed three days a week, eleven months of the year. I have also heard that he only talked about two subjects, golf and Robin, for he had found himself a wonderful wife and friend in Robin. Kim was also a member here at St. John's and a participant in our weekly Wednesday night bible study group, a missionary representative on our Honduras mission trip and loved delivering Christmas presents with the Daughters of the ...

They laid Jesus in the tomb. A tomb cut out of the rock of the garden. A tomb of stone with a large stone standing in front of the entrance as a door, as a barrier, as a wall. The stone represents the end. Nothing else can happen now. There is such a sense of finality to the ending of the story today. We know death. We have experienced death in our lives before. Death is the end. We see Jesus finish his earthly mission and accomplish everything the Father has sent him to do. I wonder if he felt any sense of relief or success in completing his mission. Yet, it looks so much like failure. There is such a sense of loss. The Messiah, the Christ, the Rabbi Jesus is dead.  Naturally, the first question after any loss is why? Even if there exists a perfectly reasonable explanation for why a person died, it is never enough to comfort the bereaved after the loss of a loved one. The disciples must have asked this question as we do today. Why? Why did Jesus die? The most direct answers ...

Good Friday  March 25th 2016 Eternal God, who created all things ordinary and extraordinary, help us to see clearly the work that you are doing in our midst despite the sinful desires we give in to, grant us the grace to move beyond our deaths into your eternal life, through your Son who loved us so much and the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.  We gather together today as ordinary people. Its important to remember our ordinariness. Its important to remember that at one point in time this day was an ordinary day.  When we think of ordinary we tend to think of boring, repetitive, normal, typical, common place, run of the mill, regular, routine... in other words, very much not special. It's waking up each morning, going to work, sorting through the mail... And sometimes the ordinariness of things can get in the way of enjoying them. I know most of you are thinking at this moment, that's not today! Today is very much not ordinary! Definitely not ordinary. Today ...

my God, my soil deepened richly sustains me in eloquent silence for there I learned though death did speak to my hate-filled waiting heart that my life must be worth the gold I weigh and more for a man, a man with love who knew me not two thousand years of fated human history ago a man who loved his mother his friends though fraught with lies and complications a man of love worth more than I could ever know died so that I might live and that life not worth living as slowly as an orchard grew with strength and depth and breadth living, breathing, ever changing to bear the fruit of unknown destiny all for the living dust of one man's flesh enraptured in the resurrection and grateful be this little seed for the death which brings new life