There is a text in Jeremiah 29:1,4-7 that always makes me think. In it the prophet Jeremiah writes a letter to a bunch of people who have been carried off into exile. They are far…
Essays
Do You Believe In God
It’s strange how one sentence can trigger a flood of memories. Do you believe in God? I’m reading Pádraig Ó Tuama’s collection of poetry called Kitchen Hymns and he has a series of poems that are titled…
I ended up on the wrong side of Facebook
The other day I had a couple of Facebook posts get shared a whole bunch and thereby end up on the wrong side of the algorithms. I checked in to find hundreds of comments. There…
Practicing for the world we want
The other week I started reading “The Universal Christ” by Fr. Richard Rohr. This is my first time reading Rohr (I know! I’m late to the party) and I’m enjoying it! There was one quote,…
Why Have We Abandoned Jesus?
Today I’m really excited to announce that I’ve been awarded a Louisville Institute Pastoral Study Grant! This grant provides folks with financial support to undertake a research project. From their website: “awards grants to individual or…
An Invitation To A Radical Encounter With Jesus
The church library beckons with overflowing shelves of books. I scan my eyes over the spines and smile. There’s some great stuff in here. Then I look down to the young folks section. Lovely children’s…
How To Use My Voice
For the last several months I’ve been volunteering with an organization that goes into women’s prisons and jails and teaches writing and poetry workshops. I’ve been volunteering at a jail with several other folks. It’s…
Old Story, New Again
Over the last several weeks (months) my social media feed has been filled with “Wicked”. Clips from the film, from interviews with the stars and the director, reactions from people who have seen in, jokes…
No One Is Coming To Save Us… And That’s A Good Thing
For years I waited for someone or something to save me. To rescue me. To come and get me out of the situations I was in. Sometimes it was the hope of a new job…
Pigs Over A Cliff
A sermon based on Mark 5:1-20 I feel like almost all of us have a thing that we love that we feel a little bit shameful about. Maybe it’s reality television or romance novels or a…