As we get closer to the end of the church year, it feels a bit as though we get closer to the end of time. At least it sounds a…
Carmen gave me one rule about preaching: Never mention her in a sermon. Since I’ve already violated that rule, I might as well continue. Carmen and I got engaged in…
There are two ideas in contention in the readings this morning, and they are both ideas about authority. Specifically, they are ideas about spiritual authority, and about how authority should…
We hear again this morning the old, tragic story of that rich man—the one who can’t quite accept what Jesus asks of disciples. It is a story that appears in…
Rev. David Killian describes the human tendency to stigmatize those who are different from us and how Jesus calls us to accept "others" as persons with dignity and value.
Only in John's gospel do we hear the Apostle Philip speak any lines at all, and they are enough to get him a bit part in any play that would…
One of the differences between our two parishes, at least this summer, is the way we approach the lectionary. First of all, as a person who lives rather closer to…
Today’s reading from Mark reads like palace intrigue and conspiracy against John the Baptist. We first hear about John when Jesus goes to be baptized; he is clothed in animal…
Saint Paul was a man of tremendous ambition. We have a museum-quality idea of saints that preserves them for history in a sort of cotton wool halo of meek-and-mild perfection.…