Writings and Sermons
The blessing oil drips off my hands, running onto the page as I write, and Scripture’s lines about oil dripping off of Aaron’s beard run through my head. I remember how I remind others that anointing with oil was a kingly act, that our baptism anointing ties us to the apostles, prophets, priests, and […]
Read MoreThere is a balm in Galilee. Or at least that’s what I’m looking and hoping for, a balm in Galilee. The better known Balm of Gilead is only mentioned a few times in scripture and always as something with extraordinary healing properties, rare, and valuable. The idea was later adopted and incorporated into an African […]
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago the audio of my sermon got lost due to a tech mishap. Because I had most of a manuscript and thought it was a good sermon on a hard passage, I committed to (re)creating a written version of the sermon. The text I preached is Mark 10: 2-16 and can be […]
Read More“In all that you do, you are to nourish Christ’s people from the riches of his grace, and strengthen them to glorify God in this life and in the life to come.” Book of Common Prayer, 531 I was at Camp as the priest of the week. Right before bedtime, a Counselor brought a camper—an […]
Read MoreI sat at the deathbeds of three Churches. That was the ministry I was called to. It was not the ministry I expected. It was not, in the way that death never is, the ministry I wanted. I could see all the ways the story ended differently. More money, more people, more energy. Some of […]
Read MoreIt was January 2002, the weekend before my 2nd semester of college began. It was the beginning of my acceptance of a priestly vocation and I was sitting in a room at a Church 5 hours away from home, further from college. A priest, whom I’ve known for years and love and respect, said that he […]
Read MoreI started seminary the fall after I graduated college. I moved across the country and, as it happened, away from a Church situation that was…unhealthy…for me. It had been difficult for more than a year before I left. I felt I had little community at my Church; I was not being fed spiritually. I even […]
Read MoreThere are few universal rules, especially at Camp. A person is running. Running can lead to falling—especially in a world of unpaved paths, gravel, roots, large rocks, and done in an often ungainly body. So we don’t run. Except when we do (some games and activities, and in the case of emergencies). So we can’t […]
Read MoreSomewhere around the 4th or 5th week of Easter, I find myself remembering my friend, classmate, and colleague the Rev Cody Unterseher. I think about Cody not because the anniversary of his death is around this time of the year (April 25). I remember Cody because of what happened on Facebook in 2010. Cody and […]
Read MoreTonight I’m dreaming of Bishops. I grew up in a Church with a priest who is male. He was our priest from the time my family joined the Church to when I left for seminary. Although I was blessed to have a priest who was amazingly supportive and encouraging, I still remember the first time […]
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Theologybird Writes 