What is to prevent me from becoming baptized?

Easter 5, Year B, 2024: Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:24-30; John 15:1-8. “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”  The Ethiopian eunuch wants to know. Today’s first reading comes from Acts of the Apostles, which describes the life and ministry of Jesus’ followers after his death, resurrection, and ascension. In it we hear how through …

Tell The Story: Easter 2024

Easter, Year B: Isaiah 25:6-9; Mark 16:1-8 In their grief and in their love, Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James, and Salome went to the tomb to anoint the dead body of Jesus.  There’s a saying: Grief is love with nowhere to go.  But on that morning, it took them to tomb of Jesus. Jesus, their …

Tell The Story: Good Friday 2024

C. S. Lewis. A Grief Observed. Chapter One: “No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning. I keep on swallowing. At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. …

Sitting with Judas

Wednesday of Holy Week 2024 John 13:21-32 I have never cared to linger on this passage about Judas. I do not like to think about betraying Jesus. I don’t like to think about Judas, you, or me betraying Jesus. This passage is not where I want to hang out. It makes me uneasy. I want …

We wish to see Jesus.

Lent 5B (John 12:20-33) It is a small piece of paper, yellowed by time. Nobody knows who put it there or when. But there it is still: inside the pulpit at Palmer Memorial Episcopal, on Main Street in Houston, where only the preacher can see it.  The first three years of my ordained ministry were …

Don’t Forget Why

Lent 3, Year B: Exodus 20:1-17. I have a rule.  I’ve had this rule for so long, that I forgot why I had it. What’s the rule? Thou shalt not ride thy bicycle after 3 pm on Fridays. I adopted this rule when I lived in Houston and … I still live by it today.  I love …

Give up Nostalgia for Lent

Lent 1, Year B: Mark 1:9-15. As you know, the penitential season of Lent kicked off on Ash Wednesday a few days ago. That caught at least my oldest son by surprise when I talked with him on the phone on Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday. “What?!” he said, and then began reworking the next day’s schedule so that …

God Makes a Way Out of No Way

Epiphany 4, Year B: Mark 1:21-28 “God makes a way out of no way.”  This inspiring and true theological claim emerged from the experience of African-American women and was brought to the academy by Womanist theologians to the benefit of us all. “God makes a way out of no way.”  I recently heard someone say …

The Work of Christmas

Christmas 2: Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18. I was on time, but soon I’d be cutting it close. Because I was listening to a radio interview that I just couldn’t tear myself away from, after parking my car at the top of the Cathedral parking garage.  It was an interview of Brené Brown, entitled: The …

Angels, Stars, and Heralds of Gospel

Christmas 2023: Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2:1-20 Which one do you have?  An angel or star at the top of your Christmas tree? If you are a guest in someone’s home, what is at the top of your host’s Christmas tree? Let’s see a show of hands:  Who has an angel?  Who has a star? From atop trees decorated …