Into the Fire: Within, between, & beyond the lines
Pentecost 15C: Jeremiah 2:4-13, Psalm 81:10-16, Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16, Luke 14:1, 7-14Italicized taglines like the one found at the bottom of all of the “Into the Fire” posts typically go unread. That being the case, I want to describe the pro ...
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Good things come to those who wait
My post this week will be posted Thursday instead of today as I am taking, Henry, one of my sons to college this week. I know you are all very disappointed, I hope it is worth the wait.The Rev. ...
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Why My Kids Want to Go to Church
Last week was Choir Camp for the Boys & Girls Choir here at St. James's. The annual late-summer camp gives young choristers an opportunity to have fun together, as well as begin learning music and the choir director's expectations before the ...
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Into the Fire: Who touched your mouth and made YOU a prophet?
Pentecost 14C: Jeremiah 1:4-10, Psalm 71:1-6, Hebrews 12:18-29, Luke 13:10-17Jeremiah tells us that the word of the Lord said to him that before it formed Jeremiah in the womb, it knew, consecrated, and appointed him a prophet. Jeremiah responded ...
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The Reality/Perspective Gap
When I find myself in a bad mood it is usually because I have worked myself into it. You know what I’m talking about: everything starts out okay and then something sets you off and it is downhill from t ...
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Finding God in the Laundry
I have spent many hours in recent weeks dealing with my children’s clothing—packing and unpacking clothes for summer camp, doing more laundry than usual (thanks to the extra-stinkyness of clothes arriving home from said summer camp), and buying som ...
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Into the Fire: Broken Expectations
Pentecost 13C: Isaiah 5:1-7, Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19, Hebrews 11:29-12:2, Luke 12:49-56Isaiah’s love song in 5:1-7 about his beloved’s vineyard—a vineyard for which his beloved worked hard—ends in 5:30, so we only brush the beginning of this allegor ...
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That Little Chapel on that Little Island in Maine
For the last 14 summers I have had the privilege and the joy to worship with and serve a small group of Episcopalians on an island in Casco Bay, Maine (just off the coast of Portland) for 4 weeks/5 Sundays a year. ...
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Can the Episcopal Church Attract Disaffected Young Evangelicals?
By now, it's old news that one in five Americans, including one-third of adults under 30, claim no religious affiliation. Popular blogger and author Rachel Held Evans, who identifies primarily as an evangelical, wrote a much-shared CNN blog post about how ...
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Into the Fire: Jesus the Thief?
Ancient rabbis spoke of scripture (the Torah, specifically) as black fire on white fire, both of which beg interpretation if anything resembling and understanding of God’s instruction (Torah, literally) is to be reached. God gave them the Torah without v ...
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