Lent is a season of preparation. Through these 40 days of reflection and repentance, we prepare our hearts and our lives to embrace Jesus’ passion—his death and resurrection on our behalf. This time is meant to stretch us in ways that both expose our need for Christ’s redemptive work and that invite us to apply it to our lives: what needs to be “put to death” in us? How is Jesus calling us to walk in newness of life? (Rom. 6:1-12) This is the spirit with which we approach the disciplines of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. These ancient practices are tools in God’s hand to help us ask the abov ..read more

Ps. 78 15 He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. 16 He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. 17 Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. 18 They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. 19 They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness? 20 He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?” 21 Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath; a f ..read more

Ps. 22 1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?     Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,     and by night, but I find no rest. 3 Yet you are holy,     enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4 In you our fathers trusted;     they trusted, and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried and were rescued;     in you they trusted and were not put to shame. 6  ..read more

Isaiah 42 1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. Three things in this passage encourage me. I hope they'll encourage you today. First, the chosen servant about wh ..read more

1 Corinthians 1 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 b ..read more

Below is a recording from the town hall where Seth+ discusses our recent communication on Christian identity and sexuality (you can read the initial statement here). As always, we invite dialogue around these important aspects of our faith and shared life. Reach out to any of our clergy if you'd like to follow up with a personal conversation ..read more

Dear Friends, In the title essay of her collection of essays, When I Was a Child I Read Books, the author, Marilynne Robinson recounts her days growing up accompanied by the inherent loneliness of Idaho landscape and the enduring positive benefit of this kind of loneliness. She notes that for Americans of a certain era such emotions as mourning, melancholy, regret, and loneliness were “high sentiments, as they were for the psalmist and for Sophocles, for the Anglo-Saxon poets and for Shakespeare.” Being a child of the Midwest with family still scattered across her hills and hollows along with ..read more

Matthew 27:57-66 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and ..read more

It’s Maundy Thursday. The painting you see above had to be changed for reasons as compelling as its imagery. Madox Brown originally painted Jesus without enough clothing to satisfy critics and potential buyers. It remained unsold for several years until the artist retouched the figure of Christ, giving him robes. Such a response reveals more about us than it does about Jesus (or the artist, for that matter). We know from the Gospels that whatever Jesus wore while washing his disciples’ feet, it was less than he had on when he began. He stripped down. Took off. He meant to communicate somethin ..read more

by Father Seth Cain All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.   Isaiah 53:6–7 Agnus Dei by Francisco de Zurbarán I cannot keep my mouth shut in the face of injustice, particularly when it bears down on me. I must confront. I must be vindicated immediately and completely. And if it seems at all right tha ..read more