How do we know what God wants? I know - I’ll think of a number between 1 and 20, or let’s get out the Ouija board, or we’ll draw lots and see who gets the short end of things and then we’ll know what God wants! We all want to know what God wants, and we want to do what God wants. So let’s find the formula for what God wants. The simpler the better. Let’s create a simple,...

In these weeks that follow Easter, our churches today join the first apostles in their first weeks following Easter.  Each year we learn more from them about how to be Easter People - how to live in a new universe following the resurrection of Christ from the dead.  They were trying to figure it all out; they talked together and prayed together about it.  Some of them had seen the...

Though teaching and preaching appear in the Bible as cognate offices, I have good reason to understand the considerable difference between them, and therefore to fear a charge of presumption in mounting the stairs to one of the world’s more imposing pulpits. I am a layman unordained. I have never studied in a seminary, and I have read little theology written in the last five hundred...

I was so happy when I saw this passage from Corinthians on the list of lectionary texts for today - the suggested passages for preachers, part of a three-year rotation. At first glance, these verses about whether to eat meat that has been sacrificed to pagan idols probably doesn’t sound very relevant to many people. There are lots of ethical issues that we keep turning over in our...

The Gospel of John does not say that John the Baptist baptized Jesus. It doesn’t - the other gospels do, but this one does not. John is named as a baptizer. The gospel says that John sees Jesus walking towards him, and it records John as saying that he had seen the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus like a dove. But it doesn’t say when that happened, and it doesn’t say that John...

Today’s lectionary reading serves as a musical prompt—I hear the voice of a tenor singing “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people” from Handel’s Messiah. The reading from Mark echoes Isaiah and relays other images of the season: John the Baptist, born of aging parents, then appearing in the wilderness, clothed in camel’s hair and preaching repentence. His cousin’s own peculiar...

Almost a decade ago, my husband and I attended the wedding of dear friends in Sicily. The groom is Norwegian and the bride Sicilian - the wedding was taking place in the Baptist church in Siracusa pastored by the bride’s father. My husband and I sat on the “groom’s side” of the aisle, which was packed with people from Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and us. We were...

Our biblical texts for today tell us the stories of two men, Moses and Paul, each of whom was God’s servant in the shaping of a faithful people.  Moses led the Hebrews through the desert for decades into liberation in the Promised Land. It was indescribably hard work, and at times it almost failed. He endured the people’s derision, stubbornness, misunderstanding, and mutiny.  He...

Fall officially began this past week. It may be my favorite season (I’m not ready to fully commit to fall as favorite because the beauty of nature in winter’s snows, spring’s blossoms, and summer’s golden radiances speak to me so deeply). Fall has the blazing oranges, reds, and yellows on the trees, then the crunching of those same leaves underfoot. All this I love. But fall...

Today is a Sunday with resonances that bounce all over these majestic, towering stone walls. Today is the first Sunday in our new academic year, and we honor that this morning by singing, “Earth and All Stars,” by giving a special welcome to our new students, an enthusiastic “welcome back” to our fabulous Chapel Choir and generally reveling in the joy of being all back together...