A Positively Poetic Priest

I have had a reputation in my life for not sleeping. As a small child, I didn't sleep through the night and frequently kept my parents awake. As a kid at camp, not being a good sleeper, everyone thought that I just didn't sleep. Even through college and seminary, my friends joked that I must not be human because they had never seen me sleep. I have a hard time sleeping through noise, and people make a lot of noise. My husband continues this line of joking still today though he has managed to catch me asleep, though not often, because he falls asleep faster than I do and he can sleep through almost anything. In the Gospel passage this morning, we hear another parable from Jesus. And this one leaves us with a lot more questions instead of answers. In the stories and teachings before this parable in the arc of story from Matthew Jesus is on this theme of staying awake. Of course, we get to the parable of the bridesmaids and see all of them promptly fall asleep. Thankfully, I don...

I brought a special box with me today! Although, y'all have already heard Jesus' parable and I don't know... its not an easy parable to take out of the box. (though this parable is bursting out of this box...) In case you need to hear this up front, this sermon is not about answers. It is about questions. Here it comes. This box is the color of gold. Parables are even more valuable than gold. This box also looks like a present. Parables are presents. They were given to us before we were born and they are ours, even if we don't know what they mean. This box looks old. Parables are old. This box is closed. Parables sometimes seem closed to us. We need to keep coming back to them to see if they will open. Let's look inside. We have a king,  (crown) we have invitations (invitation card) we have a wedding banquet, (plastic food) we have servants/slaves (towel) we have people (wooden people figures) we have wedding clothes (wedding clothes) we have a man with no wedding c...

Do you know the feeling of planting something? The hopeful feeling of wanting something to grow the slightly scary feeling of knowing that you don't have total control over what is going to happen the awe inspiring feeling of knowing you don't actually know exactly how growth happens? Planting is fraught with emotion. Between last Sunday's sermon and this Sunday's Gospel passage, I found myself compelled to reach out to Grow It Green here in Morristown and spend an afternoon at their Urban Farm. If you don't know Grow It Green, they are a local non-profit farm, managing the community gardens on Early Street, the partner greenhouse at St. Elizabeth's, and the Urban Farm on Hazel Street behind the Lafayette Learning Center preschool. Their mission is "to promote community health through urban agriculture, discovery-based learning and equitable food access. Grow It Green Morristown creates sustainable farms and gardens, and educates communities on healthy eati...

We don't tend to think of being shrewd as one of the spiritual gifts of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, self control, faith, humility, none of those sound remotely like shrewdness. But as I thought longer about the idea, I thought of discernment. Discernment is a gift of the Spirit. And discernment is the ability to judge well, going beyond the simple pros and cons of a situation and seeking out spiritual guidance to see the nuances and find the path forward. The definition of being shrewd is having sharp powers of judgment, being astute, being creative in thinking and looking at issues from multiple sides to see the outcomes. Being shrewd fits into the idea of discernment. Discernment is important in many different aspects of our lives. While the parable we heard from the gospel of is offputting there are a number of lessons we can learn from it.  Everyone agrees that it is a confusing and hard to figure out parable. Every...

18 September 2016  Proper 21C  There once was a turtle that lived near a hare. The hare made fun of the turtle for going  so slowly all the time. One day, the hare had a marvelous idea. He was going to  challenge the turtle to a race! Then he could really make fun of the turtle for losing.  There was no way the hare with all his speed wouldn't win! When the hare saw the turtle  the next day he challenged the turtle to a race and surprisingly the turtle accepted. They  set the agreed upon start and finish and got themselves ready. At the starting sound, off  they went along the path. The hare bounded ahead and soon became so far ahead he  couldn't even see the turtle behind him anymore. After a little while, he thought to  himself, I am so far ahead, I have time to take a little nap. I'll wake up and still have  plenty of time to finish. So he found a nice spot and sat down for a nap. The turtle  however, had been steadily walki...

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...