Faith in Progress

For Bear Tuesday, May 22, 2018 Jefferson Funeral Chapel Today is the hardest of days.  We gather here to grieve for Bear -- husband, father, brother, son, friend and coach and so much more -- gone much too soon and suddenly.  We gather in sorrow, struggling to find some sense of hope.  We gather in pain, hoping to find some sense of comfort.  We gather with questions and regrets, needing so badly to find a sense of peace. Barb, you’ve lost your husband, your best friend, your confidante.  Audrey and Rachel, you’ve lost your funny, proud, loving dad.  And there are no words to make that better, nothing that can fill that hole.  I know Bear still loves you, he is still proud of you, he will never be far from you.  And yet all of us know that isn’t the same as his being here with you.  Please know that this room today is full of people who want to offer you our prayers, our love, and our support as you begin to reshape your lives....

Pentecost May 20, 2018 Last Sermon at St. Aidan’s I love the humanness of the start of our story from Acts today.  There the disciples gather, huddled together in sadness over the loss of their beloved leader and friend.  Fearful that the authorities may be coming for them next.  Unsure what to do or where to go.  They can’t imagine carrying on Jesus’ ministry on their own — who were they after all?  Just ordinary people — fisherman and tax collectors, brothers and friends.  There was nothing particularly holy about them other than their association with Jesus.  And so there they were, all clamped shut in that room, with their broken hearts and their tense shoulders and their befuddled minds.  Sheep without a shepherd.  I picture another group feeling a lot like that.  A group of pilgrims to Iona, after our beloved Ian Roberts collapsed in our midst. Someone once said that “[t]o journey without being changed is to be a ...

April 29 Acts 8:26-40 As I’ve continued recovering from my broken arm, I’ve found myself saying no to fun things that I would ordinarily say yes to.  Some things just haven’t been possible, like basketball and bike riding.  But other things I think I just said no to because I’ve gotten used to that being the only realistic response.  In the past couple weeks, my daughter Maya at various times wanted to make slime, and rock crystals, and plant a garden.  And each time, something about the mess and gathering the materials made the projects seem like too much.  And lately it hit me that I’ve missed out on a lot of fun moments over the past three months.  Moments that I can't get back.  Somehow that realization combined with our reading from Acts this morning to bring me back to a piece of a book that caught my attention a while back. A few months ago I read Between the World and Me , a book written by Ta-Nahesi Coates to his teenage son as an a...

April 8, 2018 Easter 2 John 20:19-31 Today in the church world is often called Low Sunday because of the generally low attendance.  After all, everyone came last week and heard the biggest story of all! So church can be crossed off the to-do list for a while. Have you heard the joke about the man who came out of church on Easter and the minister pulled him aside and said, "You need to join the Army of the Lord!" The man replied, "I'm already in the Army of the Lord."  The minister questioned, “Then how come I don't see you except at Christmas and Easter?" The man whispered back, "I'm in the secret service."   I recently heard a name for today that I much prefer to Low Sunday - Holy Humor Sunday.  Apparently, the early church had a tradition of observing the week following Easter Sunday as "days of joy and laughter" with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus' resurrection.  And so there is a (small but grow...

March 18, 2018 Jeremiah 31:31-34 Recently my family read the book Wonder together.  We watched the movie version too, which of course was not as good, but was beautifully done.  It is one of those rare stories that is appropriate and important for all ages.  And it made me rethink how I consciously and unconsciously treat the people around me that are different in some way.  I found myself wishing this book were required reading for everyone everywhere. Wonder is about a year in the life of Auggie Pullman, a boy who was born with a rare genetic defect that left his face severely disfigured.  After dozens of surgeries and a very sheltered existence, Auggie begins school for the first time at a private middle school in New York City.  Middle school! The locus of all of my worst growing-up memories!  It is hard to imagine a more difficult entrance to society for a kid like Auggie.  We all know, or we think we do, what fate awaits him, a...

February 25 2 Lent Mark 8:31-38 Most years, I have trouble with this season of Lent — with its often too-heavy (for my taste) emphasis on sin and penitence, and its negative take on our mortality, and its penchant for minor key dirge-y hymns, and its stories about humanity at its violent and hateful worst, and its focus on Jesus going to his death instead of his incarnation or resurrection.  I often find myself longing to edit these things out.  To take out some of the darkness and emphasize the light. But this year, Lent actually did feel lighter to me at the start. For Lent this year, I signed up for a six-week Ignatian retreat through a church in Georgetown.  The retreat started the Sunday before Lent began with a beautiful candlelit gathering of all the people making the retreat.  We shared where we were and what we were hoping for and were led on a beautiful scripture meditation before being sent back into the world.  From then on, every w...