Let us pray: Wisdom of the Ages, whisper to us words of life from your words and mine. Amen.   Self-examination and repentance. Prayer, fasting and self-denial. Study of the scriptures and meditation upon them. These are the pillars of a holy Lent. Lent can be a hungry time. Hunger for things missed never...... Read More

The world is a hostile place. The garden stories in Genesis give voice to an ancestral memory that it was not always thus.  These stories also articulate the Iron Age theology the permeates much of the scriptures, that the difficulties humanity faces must be their own fault. Yet the world is also a glorious creation...... Read More

A lecture given at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Houston, 13 March 2022.  ... Read More

Self-examination is one of the pillars of Lent that I find to be often overlooked. Today’s lessons provide an opportunity to examine ourselves and our stories, the stories our ancestors told about themselves and that we continue to tell about ourselves. The stories about the genesis of humanity also allow us to reflect on the...... Read More

Umm, did you mean to/why did you use an Easter reading for Lent?! I received this text and call more than once. This week’s readings invite us to reflect on the whole of our human story from the dust of our creation to the hope of our redemption, to carry that story with us as...... Read More

Psalm 51 symbolizes this season of repentance and reflection and at the same time its use as a liturgy of confession illustrates the need for A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church. The Church has long prayed this psalm without its first verse, the verse that frames the psalm as a confession for the sexual...... Read More

Note: The Lectionaries contain readings for an Eighth Sunday of Epiphany to account for the peripatetic Feast of the Resurrection. This year (2022) Epiphany 8 does not occur. The scriptures of Israel are occupation literature. Most reading them in a North American context are not living under the same kind of duress. It may make...... Read More

The story of the widow of Zarephath is extraordinary. She receives a rare miracle when she and her son are on the verge of starving to death and the prophet Elijah makes a way out of no way. That should be enough. A happy ending. This week her story continues with the unexpected illness of...... Read More

Reading between the lines: God told Elijah she told a widow to provide for him. That conversation is missing. The widow seems surprised by his demand, not request. Why would she do such a thing? Feed a stranger before her child? How do we tell the story in a world where some shepherds fleece their...... Read More

The story of Jesus manifesting his divinity at the wedding in Cana is paired with nontraditional readings this week. They are a celebration of love and marriage and by inference, a celebration of human sexuality. These readings begin with the lusciousness of the Song of Songs. The psalm is a royal wedding psalm for a...... Read More