These Christmas Eve resources were written towards the end of September following a tumultuous political summer in the U.S., and in the midst of a tumultuous election season as well. Not to mention wars, genocide, floods, droughts, horrendous hurricanes, and wildfires. Again. Environmental devastation, injustice, hate, division, lament, and fear… Read More »Christmas Eve 2024 Service
These are not ordinary times. We stand on the edge of an abyss. We feel the pull of anxiety, despair, division. Yet there are forces pulling us back from the edge – hope, community, solidarity, peace. The love of God, of neighbor, of all Creation. The love we receive and… Read More »Advent for Creation at the Edge
It is said that when people stand at the edge of things – the rim of the Grand Canyon, for example, or the top of a tall, tall building – many sometimes experience a pull from the depths, a terror that holds all attention; what researchers have come to label… Read More »Creation at the Edge: Prayers and Readings for Election Season 2024
We see Christ crucified in acts of violence throughout God’s Creation, against God’s children of all nationalities, religions, species and types. The cry of Christ, the words of Christ’s anguish, explode out of Creation’s pain. Here. Now. In these shadows of Holy Week, in this interplay of light and darkness,… Read More »A Holy Week Service of Lament and Hope for Creation
Welcome to Lent! So it begins! You might ask yourself, what are we giving up for Lent this year? When I served churches as a pastor, I usually gave up sleep for Lent! But we are here together on this Lenten journey not to give something up (except, perhaps, sleep),… Read More »Lent: a Season of Lament and Hope for Creation
A whole new world may yet be born… God, we need to hear those words! And believe them! We live in such dire times – and it’s been hard and excruciating for so many people for decades and centuries, too, not just in recent times. We have always lived in… Read More »We Will Not Keep From Singing
We are in this together. We are in this together. We are a community, a beloved community, earth community. The goodness of Creation is real, the holy is in our midst, we are in this together, and together we move through the seasons of our times – the upheaval, the… Read More »Affirmation of Faith During These Times
As the overworked saying goes, “Denial is not a river in Egypt.” This reading speaks to our denial-laden attempts to make these Not Ordinary Times ordinary again, to capitulate to Business as Usual. But something tugs at us like a hungry toddler demanding our attention: something is not right. This… Read More »Not Ordinary Times
I’m fed up with “dark” being equated with bad, and “light” with good. It just isn’t so. So I wrote this poem. It’s not about times of struggle between the light and the dark, with one being good and the other evil, but rather the struggle between evil – despair… Read More »Dark-Light Times