As I walked into the sanctuary this morning, I realized I had accidentally left on the lights behind our stained glass windows. As I looked closer, I checked in our “hope” window. We’ve been watching that window because it’s started to teeter a bit. The weight of the biggest stain glass is showing the impact …
In the midst of my preparation for our Advent Journey, I have revisited Barbara Brown Taylor’s Learning to Walk in the Dark. This morning, she reminded me: “By day, I am a servant of the urgent. Nothing important has a chance with me. I am too consumed with the things that must be done to …
Advent reminded us to watch and wait and here we are still watching and waiting even though the Divine is come. We are watching and waiting with bated breath to see whether there will be a peaceful transition of power, especially in light of the events on Epiphany. We are watching and waiting to see …
As we were on our morning walk, the five-year-old asked, “Why are people taking their Christmas decorations down and we aren’t?” It’s the kind of question that a clergy parent waits and hopes for. I explained that Christmas isn’t over on December 25 and in fact the season after Christmas is the time that we …
Each year, a word crystallizes as the word of the year. It’s never at the beginning and rarely clear until there later in the year. This year was surprising to be sure. In January, we celebrated our daughter’s first birthday surrounded by friends and family at one of our favorite restaurants. In February, I accepted …
Richard Rohr in his daily mediation on December 29 described the fixed point saying: The fixed point is our place to stand. It is a contemplative stance: steady, centered, poised, and rooted. To be contemplative, we have to have a slight distance from the world to allow time for withdrawal from business as usual, for …
This week is the week where Christmas and Christmastide collide every year. For many who celebrate a cultural Christmas, this week is full of taking down decorations, reorganizing, and decluttering in order to get ready for the New Year. For me, this is the week for basking in the light of all five candles blazing: …
This year, our Christmas tree lights have been on more often than ever before. We’ve always turned our Christmas tree on whenever we were home and this year we’ve been home a lot. This is the first year that we haven’t traveled during Christmas week. This is the first year we haven’t seen family during …
Advent is the official beginning of the church calendar. It comes before the new calendar year and for many clergy, it is the kick off to starting over in telling the good news of the coming of the Divine here on earth. This year this starting over begins at the end of a long journey …
As we brought our Christmas Tree into our house this year, I worried there wouldn’t be space for it. Our house is currently serving as a preschool, a business office, a home to four kids, two adults and two dogs, and a sanctuary during the Advent season for virtual worship services. Where would it go? …
