A Positively Poetic Priest

5 June 2016 Proper 5C Luke 7:11-17 Heavenly Father, who blessed us with the gift of community, help us to live lives of courage, compassion, and connection in the carrying out of our mission as the church on earth, through your Son our Savior Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit, Amen. Today marks my last Sunday as your curious, coloring, cycling curate. My time here has been a blessing to me and I have been so grateful to be able to be your curious, coloring, cycling curate.  I like themes, so I am going to stick with the c word theme today.  We are going to talk about courage, compassion, and connection.  Courage, compassion, and connection are the guts of the Christian life and practice. If you’ve ever read anything by Brene Brown, you know she has a thing for courage, compassion, and connection. She calls them the “Gifts of Imperfection.” She even titled a book, The Gifts of Imperfection, which has a whole chapter dedicated to Courage, Compassion, and...

I recently gave a presentation at Holy Spirit called Mathematics and Religion: The Quest for Truth which talked about the intertwined history of mathematics and religion. Most people believe that mathematics and religion are very separate things. However, in human history, they started together and they have been intertwined throughout history. All of our human quests for truth in this world sprouted from the beginnings of mathematics and religion. You can go here for  Dropbox viewing of the Mathematics and Religion presentation . 

Eternal God, who has made us wholly who we are, help us to see clearly where we have strayed and guide us back to your path to eternal life, through your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Do you want to be made well? The gospel passage for the day is the story of Jesus healing a man who was sitting next to the pool of Beth-zatha, or Bethsaida as its also known as. The tradition about the pool was that it had healing properties when the water was stirred up and that the first person, or first few people in it would be healed. The tradition specifically states that an angel did the stirring up, mostly because the timing of the water's movements were said to be unpredictable. The pool was associated with one of the healing cults of the time and people who were ailing would go sit at the pool and wait for the water to be stirred up and tried to be the first in. Beth-zatha translates to house of mercy or grace. Troubled water was a sign of mercy/grace for the people who went ...

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 ...

3 April 2016 Easter 2C John 20:19-31 Eternal God, who sent your only begotten Son Jesus Christ into this world, that we might know your love for us, and so that we might believe in him and join with you in eternal life, Amen. I really disliked math when I was a kid, for one very specific reason. Math teachers never seemed to explain why things were the way they were. We learned all sorts of equations and ways to do things, but they never explained why they worked or why things were done that way. It wasn't until I hit college mathematics that they started explaining why. And then I became hooked. I always wanted to know why. I know I drove my father crazy asking him why so often. Why? Why? Why? So when I looked at the gospel passage from John this morning, I was immediately struck by the fact that he explains why he is including this story about Thomas and Jesus. "These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that...

the street preacher goes on and on about Jesus and the girl nonchalantly nods along focusing on other things but something catches her ear about redemption - a feeling she's only dreamed of unknowingly subconscious wish for good "yo - what's that?" she says wondering if perhaps a few questions might be answered for the trouble on the corner "Jesus was a man - the Son of God and he died, he died for all" "Stupid, why'd he do that?" "because of love," he said, "because of love" "shut up" she said, "no one's that dumb" no one loves me that much the demons in her head confirmed why bother for this life? "oh no, Jesus did. Died for you, died for me. Died so that we might know love. Do you know love?" he questioned wondering whether he could even answer the girl looked at him in concern know love? what is love? and who's this crazy man who loves these cranky p...

Pattern our demise Destroying all hope in bits Who could forgive us? In the end what was And is and will be ever Family table love What is sacrifice?  When you know the greatest joy In ordinary