Where are the women? The long-standing practice of the Church is to read through Acts during Eastertide to follow the development of the people of the Way into what will become of the Church. Given that the Gospel of Luke and Acts are presented as having been written by the same hand, it is striking...... Read More

It seems like the resurrection generated more questions than it answers. Now what? The old questions are still on the table, will Jesus use his power to restore Israel to a self-governing monarchy? The good news exists in the crucible of Roman occupation. The resurrection has not dispensed with the Romans and their brutality and...... Read More

During the 50 days of Easter, the story would’ve spread like wildfire. And not everyone would’ve told it the same way. Someone would have told a story of one formerly outcast woman going to the tomb by herself, determined to complete the burial rites and then if necessary, to carry his body away all by...... Read More

It ain’t ova! Eastertide, the season of Easter: Fifty days of wonder as an impossible story spreads in ripples and waves and soon everyone knows someone who knows someone who saw him or touched him. In Easter week, Jesus is walking through walls (Monday), having a fish barbeque on the beach (Tuesday), opening minds to...... Read More

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb alone, knowing that she was likely to be alone once she got there. No one publicly grieves a failed messiah. Except perhaps, for a woman who is called a sinner in public and a whore in private and sometimes the other way around. Mary saw that the tomb was...... Read More

Pleasant Hope, I was looking forward to being with you in person last year. I am grateful that we and technology found a way for me to be with you on this most holy day though I still hope for an in person visit. Know that I am praying with and for you during the...... Read More

A narrative sermon in first person, delivered without notes, Easter 2019.

I’ve been sleepwalking through the last three days. It’s been a living nightmare. You don’t know if you weren’t here. I told myself not to go, but I went anyway. I told myself not to look, but I looked anyway. Almost every day the Romans hang someone from one of their crosses or invent some new form of public humiliation. But this was different. He was such a gentle soul. You should see the way children climbed all over him. He could get loud and he could be sharp. His words could cut you to the bone and leave you in tears, but it was always the truth, whether you wanted to hear it or not. And if you would listen, he would always tell you what would make you whole. I didn’t want it to be true, but I saw it with my own eyes.... Read More

Let us pray: In the name of the One who waded in the waters of Miryam’s womb, walked the way of suffering as one of the woman-born, and woke from the grasp of death in the deep darkness of the morning. Amen.   Easter is beautiful. The warmth of the vigil fire; the light of the...... Read More

What do you believe? What do you believe about Jesus? What do you believe about the scriptures that tell his story? What do you believe about the God he proclaimed with his life and death and what happened after his death? What do you believe happened after his death? What do you believe? We will...... Read More

After the Sabbath… Those three little words can’t possibly convey the emotions of that morning. After the sleepless night that turned into a Sabbath that was anything but a day of rest… After another sleepless night that turned the Sabbath into mundane time on a day that was anything but mundane… After wrestling night and...... Read More