St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church

John 11:1-45 is about Jesus' power over life and death. Jesus weeps not because he is sad, but almost as an element of physical exertion. It's tough work making the dead come to life. "Disturbed in spirit and deeply moved" makes me thinkg of a weightlifter, lifting the power of death over his shoulder.

IV Lent A

{in the parable, Jesus heals a blind man. Confusion ensues.}

I recently was at the museum looking at these different visual puzzles. There are some where a single dot in the middle of a series of lines causes other dotes to magically appear in the diagram. The dots aren't there, but the eyes put them inbetween the different line. you have probably seen the picture of the older woman that is also, if examined from a different angle, the neck of a younger woman. Or of a rabbit.

III Lent A

John 4:5-42
Romans 5:1-11 "Now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God." Now - we can seek reconciliation with those who we might kill, thereby saving ourselves.
Exodus 17:1-7

Wrath. Often in scripture, a reader gets the sense that the God one is encountering is not the meek God we might see in Jesus. It is not a nice, sweet pollyanna who lets their opponent win to encourage their self-esteem. The person, the being, the essence, of the object of our attention, our GOD, is drawn to be severe and often angry.

Some people are disillusioned with church. And I understand. Episcopal demographers weep about the church's demise. They don't know what to do. Actually we do know, but most churches can't do the work as effectively in this highly competitive spiritual marketplace. We have big physical plants, and few volunteers.

Matthew Chapter 17

I’ve often been fascinated by the greek workd “metamorphe” which is translated “transfiguration.” I wouldn’t guess that it has to do with “metamorphosis” the change of the shape, but there seems to be some major change, some revelation about who Jesus is. I have, in past sermons, used butterfly as a metaphor. It reminds me, in part, of Nabakov’s work on them.

“We are all butterflies” could be a sermon. A bad one.

Martin Luther King day is an
opportunity for us
to consider the challenges of living together as a
new sort of family,
one that alters old tribal boundaries,
and creates new ones.

We live in interesting times.
One of the candidates for president is half-African,
Raised by a single mother.
On paper, and in the media, we encourage multiculturalism.
We see around us attempts to reflect the variety of our culture.
Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith, Richard Parsons, and Stan O'Neal
are individuals with power that could not have been imagined 50 years ago.

Are we ready for the baby?

Merry Christmas.

It's good to see you all here,
to celebrate this feast,
gathered as a spiritual family.
Maybe we can for a few days,
enjoy the goodness and friendliness,
Even from bad and unfriendly people
Once a year.

I’m not the sort to complain that Christmas cheer happens so infrequently.
If it happened more frequently, It would get expensive.

Some wonder about the merits of this story.

To some it is sentimental. To others, familiar.
To others, obscure.

Who are these characters, after all, and why do they matter?

A Reading from the Book of Isaiah

"Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”

Over the last few years, I've been fascinated by the
number of individuals who believe in UFOs.
I do, personally, believe, that the universe is vast,
if carefully calibrated for life,
but I find it disconcerting that
more people who have been abducted by aliens,
than there are Episcopalians.

This might explain our current state of political affairs.

Fortunately, we have been told that they are irenic and
don't mean us any harm.

Imagine with me,

It was a simple "Thank you."

The Samaritan leper, got up and said thank you for being healed.

Jesus blessing allowed that the all the lepers
wouldn't be excluded them from the community anymore.
Once they were unacceptable. They might have looked like monsters.
Then, he sends them to the priest.

Leprosy is a visible illness.
It truncates your limbs, often disfigures the body.
In scripture, the word "leprosy" refers to almost any skin disease,
or disease that would immediately be apparent to an outsider.
Because of their misfortune, these men were social pariahs,

Luke 16:1-13