Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you; but the kind of peace I give you is not the world’s peace.”(John 14:27) What sort of peace does he mean? And was it a gift only to those who heard him or is it a gift we receive as well? The second…
“Imagine a place where mercy resides, love forms each heart and compassion is lived out with grit and determination.” ~ Cynthia Langston Kirk Rev. Troy Perry wasn’t sure what was ahead. Because he was gay, he had recently been defrocked by the church he loved and the church that he had served. His church condemned…
Dear MCCDC, It has been a joy to be in community with you since moving to Washington, DC in 2015. Thank you for welcoming me into your lives and homes, to meals and to plays, to movies and for walks. It has been a privilege to pray with you, serve you communion, and anoint you.…
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward.” ~ Philippians 3: 13-14 The invitation of Jesus includes freedom from the past and hope for the future. In Jesus, the future is open and hopeful.…
John’s Gospel begins with “In the beginning was the Word…” John’s Gospel ends with “There are many other things that Jesus did—yet if they were written down in detail, the world itself, I suppose, couldn’t hold all the books that would have to be written” ( John 21:25). John’s closing words inspire me to imagine…
You need imagination in order to imagine a future that doesn’t exist.” ~Azar Nafisi The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus call us to imagine the unimaginable. Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus enters the darkness. Then, darkness is reimagined as a place of hope reborn. It is a holy darkness, a place without…
“Blessed are hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.” ~ Albert Camus This Sunday we are going to Jerusalem. There, in Jerusalem, we will enter a love story. It is a love story from the heart of Jesus. As told in Matthew’s gospel, the path to Jerusalem begins with the proclamation of John…
Sometimes our heads are groggy from the muddle of overload. Other times our heads spin with multiple conversations going on all at once. Be it brain fog or brain spin, it is easy to think and act impulsively, without deeper consideration. Motives can quickly become confused. Old ways of thinking can easily become our dominant…
“What happens when people open their hearts in prayer? They get better.” ~ Haruki Murakami, alt. Many of my pastoral conversations center on prayer. Is there really power in prayer? We pray for wholeness of body, mind and spirit. We also pray for our broken world, including prayers for peace to calm the dangerous escalation…
“Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” ~Psalm 119:105 I recall a time when I was struggling for the right word. As a counselor for a summer youth camp I was given charge of over a dozen 8-10 year olds. They were a rambunctious test of patience and…
