A Positively Poetic Priest

Everyone here has some faith. We know this because we have all showed up here this morning. No matter in what kind of mood or season of our lives we are in, if we had no faith whatsoever, we wouldn't show up. So, we are working with something. Naturally there are many reasons people come to church on Sunday morning. Some come because they feel it is their duty, even if they don't always agree or they don't always feel like they believe in what we are doing. Some come because they are in the habit of doing so and they aren't really interested in thinking more about it than that. Some come because they truly want to go deeper in their faith they want to learn more, they want to experience Jesus more they have a deep longing for connection with God. Or perhaps you're here for some other reason, known to you alone. I hope that we are all here because we want a deeper experience we want to grow our faith and become more the people G...

4 September 2016  Proper 18C  The Cost of Discipleship  This one time... At church camp... The theme for the year was, "leap of faith." For some reason, a group of us got into our heads that any time the theme was mentioned, we needed to leap around. During the lessons, during the softball game, during craft time, if someone said, "leap of faith," we'd all get up and leap about. Leap! We tend to think of faith as a leap, something spontaneous in a way. Something that cannot be planned out. Faith doesn't work within an outlined list of duties or goals, or with a projection sheet. Yet, it seems like Jesus is saying today in the gospel passage, "I want you to plan, analyze, and figure out if you can be a disciple of mine." He suggests looking at the cost of being a disciple and personally seeing if you can pay. Have any of  you ever done a cost benefit analysis on your faith life? I certainly haven't. It wasn't part of the toolbo...