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 2020, I preached the following sermon on Easter Sunday, less than a month into the Covid-19 pandemic.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2020: Why Are You Weeping?”
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 2019, I wrote notes each week of my first sabbatical, and this is one about my time at the Lynching Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2019: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice”
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. Every once in a while I sing during a sermon, including during the sermon in 2018.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2018: You Are My Child”
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 2017, I preached this sermon on Christmas Eve.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2017: The Uniqueness of the Incarnation”
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. Near the end of 2016, I was going through time of dryness spiritually, and this sermon grew out of that.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2016: The Spiritual Desert”
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 2015, I wrote this sermon for Trinity Sunday, and I really liked it.
Continue reading “Sabbatical Retrospective, Year 2015: The Blueprint”
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. 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”
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... 