Recently I left for the store and forgot my phone. When, a few blocks from home, I realized my phone-free status, I felt instant discomfort, wondering: What if my car breaks down? Then I smiled because—good grief—for most of my life, I always left home without a phone! Not only was I generally okay, but when something went wrong and I needed help, delightful things often transpired. Such as the time I was halfway between northern Oregon and northern California... Read more
In the story in this week’s lectionary gospel (John 2:1-11), Jesus tells his mother he cannot help the wedding host who has run out of wine because his “hour has not come.” It seems he knew something. He knew that as soon as he did a public wonder, it would start in motion the end of his life. And sure enough, it did. When he started going around Galilee and Judea doing miracles, at first he told people to keep... Read more
In the new year, I am rethinking prayer. By this I don’t mean that I started saying prayers differently. I mean that what prayer is to me completely changed. Really, decades have passed since I “said prayers” unless in a group setting—mainly because, for me, formulating words has tended to get in the way. In lieu of this, I have tried either to tune in to the divine in various ways, or to repeat simple mantras encapsulating what in most... Read more
Today I want to talk about Christmas and waiting. The Christmas season is one of waiting. Advent means, “the arrival,” and for those who celebrate, we wait for the arrival of Jesus into the world—because of all that he represents to us. And at this deep-winter time of year, we wait for the light to return, after months of light decreasing day by day. I feel too that much of the world is currently waiting. People wait to see what... Read more
For decades, I have not been precious about Christmas. This stems from years of having to share my daughter (an only child who’s now a wonderful 33-year-old) with several family gatherings on her father’s side, a gathering with her godfather’s family, and sometimes, her job, and from being a single-mom for many intervening years. Throughout the holiday, my daughter would be so exhausted trying to please everyone that I removed expectations for myself and any notions of an idyllic family... Read more
Perhaps my favorite thing about the Christmas season—just a few days away—is reminding myself and others how extraordinary are the stories of Christmas. Among global literature, they stand out as baldly subversive and anti-imperial while at the same time being neutralized. The gospel writers of Matthew and Luke (the only canonical gospels with birth narratives) each in their own way set up a stark confrontation between Jesus and the Roman Caesars, of all things—something no first-century reader would have failed... Read more
Jesus’ metaphor of ‘king’ is a focus this Sunday in my own tradition (Episcopal). And I admit that this is not my favorite metaphor used by Jesus, in part because it is confusing. I don’t like what kings, emperors, rulers, presidents, have done to the weak throughout history. The things they have done and are doing are generally the opposite of what Jesus did and taught. But Jesus used the metaphor of ‘king’ frequently; in fact, ‘the kingdom of God’... Read more
For many, it has been a hard week. We all must seek deep solace now and for a while to come, and I’m thinking about this most important quest. For my part, I am finding solace in several things—friendship (human and non-human), nature, fiction, late-70s disco, art-making, singer-songwriter tunes, rest. But I’m also finding solace in my tradition. In the stories and scope and prayers that came to us across the eons as people faced precarity and domination in their... Read more
Have you, at times, longed for a pathway forward—whether a way out of a stuck place or a healing of some kind—but felt unworthy of asking? When I read the lectionary in preparation for last Sunday’s sermon, a story about a blind man healed by Jesus that I have heard dozens of times—it jumped out at me and moved me. First, I was struck by how this man knows who Jesus is, so that when he hears ‘Jesus of Nazareth’... Read more
Recently while watching the film Supernova, I heard this quote: “We will not starve for lack of wonders, but from lack of wonder” (unattributed). I like to think of myself as someone attuned to wonder. Animals imbue my life with wonder—such as when young Eloise looks into my eyes and reaches to stroke my cheek. At times, I experience wonder over my marriage and the unlikelihood of Ed and I finding each other. At times, a certain light strikes me... Read more
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