I have a dirty secret. I suppose since you are here that you too have one. We share a dirty secret. And today we are ready to go public. We are ready to let the truth emerge, we are ready to walk from here with the mark of our origins plain for everyone to see, …
Author Archives: Rob
Sunday Week 7 Year C
I stand before you this day to tell you that Jesus got it wrong. Either that or we did. Here he is again this morning, speaking to the victims: to those who are hated, who are cursed, who are maltreated; victims of violence, victims of theft and plunder. It seems like he forgot to speak …
Sunday Week 4 Year C
It came flooding back this weekend, the memory, clear and embarrassing, of sitting in my mother’s house one Holy Week afternoon, aged twenty or so, watching Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Zeffirelli’s sweet and oh-so-sixties story of Francis of Assisi. Watching it, trying to be above its sugar and sentiment, and failing—instead being drawn in, being …
Ascension Sunday
There’s a strange thing going on with time in these readings. We start with the very beginning of St. Luke’s book about the life and ministry of the early Jesus movement and finish with the very end of St. Luke’s book about the life and ministry of Jesus in the flesh. Time is out of …
Baptism of the Lord Year C
Oreo Cookies, Family Photos, and Steve Young. Not necessarily in that order. Item: Family Albums. “Who’s that?” ask Laura, to her little one. And with a roll of her eyes, as if the question was a no-brainer, Amy says, “that’s me.” This is New Year’s Day and the old photos are out and we’re looking …
Epiphany Sunday Year C
Looking for the rising star where else do you go but Jerusalem? To Zion set on a hilltop; to the king in his palace; to God in his brand new Temple? You make the pilgrimage. You don’t mind the desert chill or the barren winter plains because ahead, always rising, is the jewel of Judah, …
Sunday Week 4 of Advent Year C
The TV does it! The magazines do it! Even the Sunday liturgy does it! “Does what?” I hear you ask. Does this: goes all nostalgic. We’re all looking forward to Christmas by looking backward in memory. The adverts are full of warm hearths and ruddy-cheeked children and Victorian windows and period costumes and gently drifting …
Sunday Week 1 of Advent Year C
Isn’t it a strange time of year? I’ve always loved Advent and I’ve come in these years to love Thanksgiving yet I never know at this time of year which way to turn, which way to look. This year especially it’s been ambiguous. I’ve had two dear friends here to celebrate with and we’ve found …
Sunday Week 33 Year B
“Cheer up,” they tell you, “it’s not the end of the world.” When the horrible happens, when someone irreplaceable dies, when someone you love doesn’t love you, when illness strikes like lightning or wastes like acid. “Cheer up! It’s not the end of the world!” But what do they know? It should be the end …
Sunday Week 29 Year B
I’m looking at all your faces and I’m wondering what I can see … you’re a little on edge, you don’t know who I am, but besides that you really quite relaxed, quite calm. You’ve heard the same readings I’ve just heard and you’re calm! You call yourselves disciples and yet you’re relaxed, comfortable. You …