4th Sunday of Easter - 04/30/2023

Readings for today.

Sheep and shepherds, oh my! Happy Good Shepherd Sunday!  Just as we read about “doubting” Thomas the Twin on the Sunday after Easter each year, the 4th Sunday of Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday. 

Psalm 23 paints an idyllic picture of God as our shepherd.  Often shared at funerals and other times of uncertainty, it evokes comfort and security.  Green pastures and still waters provide plentiful food and water for unhurried grazing, as do a generously spread table and a cup running over, presumably with living water.  A song of guidance, protection, and plenty that we often sing with shaking voices, soothing ourselves into calm, remembering a peace that revives and reassures us for living.

With Psalm 23 echoing in our ears, we project Jesus as the shepherd onto today’s gospel selection.  Reading more closely, in today’s reading Jesus says he is the gate, the way into the security of the sheepfold.  And the way out into the world.  

2nd Sunday of Easter 04/16/2023

 Readings

Did Jesus really appear to his disciples after he died?  If they didn’t recognize him, how did they know it was him?  Can we doubt AND have faith simultaneously?

Thomas the Twin asked these questions the week after Jesus was resurrected.  We are still asking them today.  They are particularly relevant as we baptize an adult into the body of Christ this morning.  

Easter Day 04/09/2023

 Readings (Matthew Gospel)

Happy Easter!!  

My heart is so full, seeing all of you here this morning!

For those joining us via livestream, outside, it’s a beautiful grayish Seattle day of blooming bulbs and spring green, made so by lots of rain.  

Inside, our sanctuary is awash with light and life: the glory of creation in flowers, joyful music that moves our hearts and bodies, and so many beautiful radiant faces.  

After three years in the pandemic and its shadow, it finally feels like we are emerging into new life.  We persevered through dark, suffocating days, and death.  We labored to find strength to breathe and feel alive.  We are not who we were before.  We are emerging into a new world and understanding of our selves.

Palm Sunday - 04/02/2023

Palm only Readings for today.

The Passion according to Matthew.

No, we didn’t forget to read the Gospel this morning.  With our bishop’s permission, we are using the Palm gospel from the beginning of the service as our Good News this morning.  In The Episcopal Church, Palm Sunday services typically read the Passion gospel just before the sermon.  Today we will hear the story of Jesus’ betrayal, trial, and execution as the postlude to our celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem surrounded by a noisy, cloak-wearing, branch-waving crowd.

5th Sunday in Lent - 03/26/2023

 Readings for today.

Can you believe Ash Wednesday was 4.5 weeks ago?!  So much has changed in the world around us - new light and flowers and allergies, more lay-offs and financial uncertainties, and continuing wars for geography and human rights.  

Lent offers some comfort and predictability.  Back on Ash Wednesday, our worship invited us into the prayer cycle of a holy Lent.  The cycle of self-examination and repentance; action as a result of that self-learning, and; listening to the Word of God.  Spending time with Scripture inevitably leads to thinking about the connection between the Word and our lives, and so the cycle begins again.  Self-examination, prayer, Scripture.  

4th Sunday in Lent - 03/19/2023

 Readings for today.

Who sinned this man or his parents?

Do they think I can’t hear them?

I’m blind, not deaf.  With all their laughing and talking and commenting on every last tree and stone and person, I heard them coming for the last 15 minutes.  There must be at least a dozen people, men and women, in this group.  I wonder where they are going.

I hope they toss a few coins my way so I can buy some bread today.

If they bothered to ask, to speak to me like a human being, I would have told them that I was born this way.

But no, they just assume that there’s something deeply wrong with me because I’m blind.  Because the only way I can support myself is to sit here at the side of the road, all day, every day, in the sun, begging for kindness of people who would rather I disappear.

Third Sunday in Lent - 03/12/2023

 Readings for Today

Here it is the third and middle Sunday in Lent.  Two more Sundays, then Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday.  Before we get all excited for the palm procession and the Passion, it’s still Lent.  Our Lenten commitments to do, or not do, something different for 40 days are beginning to feel more like habits.

A key component of our Lenten commitment is self-reflection.  What are we hoping will happen in Lent?  What is the point of making time and spiritual space for prayer?  Or changing our habits, fasting, or taking on a discipline?