During my sabbatical, I’m not writing new sermons, so on Mondays I am choosing one post from every year of WheretheWind.com to highlight. In 2014, I wrote this letter-sermon to my children, who were born about a week later.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2014: God’s Presence (A Letter to My Children)”
During my sabbatical, I’m not writing new sermons, so on Mondays I am choosing one post from every year of WheretheWind.com to highlight. In 2013, I was called to be the rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mystic, CT. As part of my interview process, I led the vestry in a church service in October 2013. I adapted the following sermon from the previous Pentecost for that service.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2013: The Spirit Moves”
During my sabbatical, I’m not writing new sermons, so on Mondays I am choosing one post from every year of WheretheWind.com to highlight. In 2012, I wrote a piece about the Pixar movie Brave, which presaged the Podcast for Nerdy Christians, which I started in 2019. This piece became the basis of an episode in Season 2.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2012: The Sermon Embedded in “Brave””
During my sabbatical, I’m not writing new sermons, so on Mondays I am choosing one post from every year of WheretheWind.com to highlight. In 2011, I wrote the ninth of the Davies Tales, autobiographical fiction about a young priest. You can find the whole series here.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2011: First Time (Davies Tales #9)”
During my sabbatical, I’m not writing new sermons, so on Mondays I am choosing one post from every year of WheretheWind.com to highlight. In October of 2010, the historic chapel at my seminary burned down. I wrote this reflection about my experience in that awkward, beautiful building.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2010: The Pews in the North Transept, A Remembrance”
During my sabbatical, I’m not writing new sermons, so on Mondays I am choosing one post from every year of WheretheWind.com to highlight. In the second year of the website, 2009, I started a short-lived video series. This video (which was modeled after The Colbert Report) eventually found its way to my publisher, which is what prompted them to get in touch with me.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2009: Humor in the Bible”
During my sabbatical, I’m not writing new sermons, so on Mondays* I am choosing one post from every year of WheretheWind.com to highlight. The first year of the website, 2008, saw me experimenting quite a bit with what I would put on the site. Very few folks read my stuff back then, but over the years, the following post has been one of my most viewed ever. (*Posting this on Tuesday because a sick kid at home caused me to miss posting yesterday.)
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2008: Pick your periscope (Bible study #2)”
As I prepare to head off on sabbatical tomorrow, I’d like to use our sermon time today to talk about what I’m going to be doing and why. Ever since joining with a group of other local clergy two years ago to learn about faith-based community organizing, I have grown increasingly fascinated with storytelling. This may sound strange because I’ve been writing novels for a dozen years. But for some reason I’ve never linked being a writer with being a storyteller. I think this is because writing novels is a solitary experience, while storytelling happens in community. Faith-based community organizing coalesces around the stories people tell about themselves and their communities, their struggles and successes, their hopes and dreams and nightmares. These stories become the building blocks for specific justice-oriented actions that seek to improve the lives of everyone in the community.
Continue reading “The Stories We Tell”
Because of my last name, I’ve always felt a bit defensive about the Apostle Thomas. There aren’t too many characters in the Bible whose names have entered into popular culture as bywords, but his is one. I’m sure you’ve all heard the phrase, “Don’t be a Doubting Thomas.” This phrase really irks me – and not simply because Thomas and I share a name. No. Calling him the Doubter is not just unfair (why single him out?); calling him the Doubter is a complete misunderstanding of the Gospel. So this morning, let’s unpack Thomas a bit, and hopefully by the end of this sermon we will see that doubt is not a bad thing.
Continue reading “Faith and Unfaith”
Good morning and welcome to St. Mark’s Church for this special Feast of the Resurrection. Every Sunday is a feast of the Resurrection, but this one happens to fall on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. (That’s how you figure out when Easter is, by the way.) Yep, we date Easter by the movement of the celestial bodies that shine energy upon this planet and create the Earth’s heartbeat in the motion of the tides. I’ve always thought that was pretty cool, but it’s not what I want to talk about this morning. Rather, I’d like to zoom in on a single line of dialogue that Jesus speaks to Mary Magdalene in this morning’s beautiful reading from the Gospel according to John. “Do not hold on to me,” Jesus says. That’s the line we’re going to unpack on this special Feast of the Resurrection.
Continue reading “Noli Me Tangere”
Where the Wind... 