The news sources that I click on or listen to are saying that the American public today is entirely split in its social and political opinion, that we have never been more divided, and that the differences are so profound that we may forever be two Americas.  I think, hope, and pray that this isn’t accurate, and that it is more the kind of dramatic journalism that seeks consumer loyalty with...

These lovely words that we’ve just heard from the Book of Acts are about a community that is on fire – they are passionate, they are glowing, they are unstoppable.  They are, together, like a person in the throes of a great new love:  they are, in every moment, their best selves.  Their sense of personal ethics they now proudly proclaim and go to new lengths to live out.  They are starry-eyed;...

Easter happened – it was two weeks ago.  We know Easter happened because we were there, or here – we woke up that Sunday morning and came to Chapel and the whole world was here and there were kites flying and special music and even, in 2017, a few Easter hats.  We might need to remind ourselves that Easter happened, though.  Fourteen days later and life is pretty much the same – the people...

My thanks to Zoe for that elegant reading of such a long passage – 41 verses! – the entirety of the story in John’s gospel of the man who was born blind.  Those who were here last week were treated to the entire story, of equal length, of Jesus’s encounter with the woman at the well.  Next week we will hear the equally lengthy story of the raising of Lazarus.  These are the assigned texts...

This past Wednesday we began the journey together through the holy season of Lent.  These next forty days are not a dreary obligation but a wonderful opportunity to live as we want to live.  I don’t mean that we are to indulge our every desire – I’m not talking about the “wants” in our life that conform to the world – our real yearnings for status, “success” (whatever that means),...

            The text that we’ve just heard from Matthew’s gospel is best known to most people because of the several verses that, in a literal reading, advocate for the ripping out of one’s own eye or the chopping off of one’s own hand.  This is hyperbole on the part of Jesus Christ, I assure you!  He offers an outrageous example, beyond the pale of human experience or of divine...

            Home for Christmas – that means so many things, doesn’t it.  We’ve just passed the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, which sent a generation off to war, a war in which one of its great holiday ballads proclaimed, “I’ll be home for Christmas, but only in my dreams.”  Home can indeed be a very far-off place of longing. 

            Many of us, myself...