When my husband and I got married nineteen years ago, one of the people on both of our invitee lists was a woman named Georgia, whom we’d both known before we knew each other. Georgia was the quintessential church lady. She would be 101 now if she was still with us, and was of that generation of women who (mostly) stayed home to raise the kids, volunteered out the wazoo, and never wore pants. That’s a tremendous generalization, of course, but you get the picture. She was on the search committee for the first church I served. The first time I came to interview, because I was moving from the be ..read more

A group of seven amazing women have joined me this Lent for a discussion of the book This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley. If you haven’t yet read it, stop reading this blog, order it from a bookstore or library, and begin to savor it. The book is like chocolate mousse – rich and beautiful and something to be savored slowly, like mousse or a really good Cabernet. Anyway, last night as we discussed the book our conversation wandered off a bit, as happens. We were talking about how someone so young – Arthur Riley is in her early thirties – can write with such depth of wisdom. Maybe she is an old ..read more

The red maple leaf on the wet pavement looks like a star. Maybe it once was that, a star, a star that Exploded into infinite piece of dust that Traveled across the galaxies and eons, Just to land on earth and dissolve into the ground, Waiting. Until the samara whirleygigged one day Onto the spot where the star dust lay Waiting. The seed took root Nourished by the once-star And grew and leafed and Provided shade from a different star. The leaf blazed, Its explosion merely a fall to earth There on the wet pavement, A reminder of what once was Eons ago. And just to show its roots That tree burst ..read more

I had forgotten so much about September in these past few years. I had forgotten that those who can flee for beaches and mountains and just plain other places over Labor Day weekend, squeezing in one last breath of summer like pause. I forgot how quiet the block is, how fewer people show up for church. I had forgotten the absolutely delightful sound of children screaming in fun on the nearby school playground; the posting of all the first-day-of-school pictures on social media; the sight of parent holding their kindergartner’s hand as they head to school for the first time. I had forgotten the ..read more

“Chronos time is how we measure our days and our lives quantitatively. Kairos is the qualitative time of life.” (Josep F. Maria, SJ) I’m thinking about Holy Week, and worship services for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter. I’m thinking about palms and azaleas and stripping the church. I’m thinking about despair and hope, short-term and long-term wins, and whether or not to invite folks up to the sing the “Hallelujah” chorus this year. In other words, I’m a pastor three weeks out from Holy Week. On Holy Saturday, our group of dedicated volunteers will decorate the sanctuary for Easter: butte ..read more

What if every human being was born with a soul made of the purest silver?  And what if over time that silver became tarnished, as silver does?   I have been trying to understand what is at the root of Wednesday’s atrocious attack at the Capitol building.  Hatred, fear, and grief come to mind, as does racism, anti-Semitism, and a desire to believe lies when they are way more convenient than the truth.  Also idolatry.  And manipulation of power.  And I am trying to understand all of this, rationally, intellectually, coolly, because when I go to the feelings pla ..read more

Gratitude, of course. Loneliness, of course. Guilt. Excess. Family. Solitude. Walks. Talks. Hawks, if you’re lucky. Just crows for me. Love. Fear. Worry. Anger. Raging silence. Untold secrets. Medications. Treatments. Rest. Work. What a day this is, U.S. Thanksgiving, a day founded on a blatant myth that erased a shameful past. But I day I love because it centers on gratitude, and I have much to be grateful for. I am grateful that more than one thing can be true at the same time – I am grateful for my life, and I know that many are suffering so many cruelties. The creation is stunning. The cr ..read more

Earlier this week, I went to the cemetery to conduct a thirty-minute outdoor service for one of three church members who have died in the last month. It was as you might expect for death in the time of COVID. We all wore masks. I couldn’t hug the family. We were limited in our time and it was all sad and awful and not what any of us wanted as a way to say goodbye to this person. On the drive to the pavilion where the service was conducted, I noticed a covered area with big piles of dirt under the roof. It occurred to me that that was the dirt from the graves that had been dug. Somehow in all ..read more

Yesterday morning, as I was drinking my coffee and going over my sermon, which would be delivered to an online-only congregation, I read a headline and immediately had some thoughts. As of Monday morning, only two parishioners have sent me a link to yesterday’s New York Times editorial by Tish Harrison Warren, “Why Churches Should Drop Their Online Services“. In case there is a paywall and you can’t access the editorial, in a nutshell Ms. Warren makes the case for dropping online services (which would include livestreamed and prerecorded) and going back to in-person services only. Her theologi ..read more

What if, in our lifetimes, we had the ability to perform one miracle? That thought came to mind as I was walking the dog the other morning, when I often get my best thoughts. We were walking by my neighbors’ house, and I was wishing I could make his cancer disappear. That would be a miracle, because it’s the kind of cancer that cannot be cured. What if we all got one miracle? Years ago, a parishioner who was very dear to me experienced a cataclysmic medical event, went into a coma on life support for two weeks, and then, after the family decision to remove the life support, died. She was fift ..read more