Month: June 2016

I am the WITH-God of Orlando

The WITH-God of Orlando (An excerpt modified from a sermon preached at Saint John’s Cathedral for the Wilderness Eucharist, July 26, 2016) We see You in the glittering, clean candles of our altars. We see You in the rainbows, and the puppies. We see You in the Thanksgiving dinners and...

grounded in gratitude – a Eucharist

It is summertime and schedules are relaxing in the inhale, exhale, inhale way our American year works.  For many there is no relaxation at all - single mothers with low-paying jobs are working and sleeping - “the working poor” we call them. They are caught in a terrible system of...

Beer and Baptism

Last night we made beer.  I joined two parishioners, Bridget and David, to discuss parish life.  We needed to discuss an upcoming baptism.  We needed to discuss spiritual life and prayer.  We needed to discuss a gift they wanted to make to the Saint Francis Apartments for the formerly homeless....

The Daily Sip will return next week

Due to a demanding schedule of teaching over these next three days, the daily sip will resume next week.  Thank you for your patience. May I suggest that you use time normally used for the Daily Sip for silent, wordless meditation.  Sit with a candle, back forward slightly, chin up,...

sky, light and clouds

Today is Pat’s last day in the office.  And last night he and Jack and I went out for dinner under this sky. It was a night full of laughter, gust busting laughter, and stories about life and cities and meetings and favorite things and even goodbyes. Queen Elizabeth once...

inside painting

This is a two-inch tall Chinese bottle from the early 1800’s and is decorated with what is called “inside painting.”  An artist paints such a bottle on the inside of the glass, backwards, beginning from what would normally be the final strokes on a painting, and working backwards to what...

Rye, reality and relationships

Making spice bowls, like this one which holds brown sugar, is fast work.  A ball of clay the size of a golf ball and in about 4 seconds it is a small bowl.  The redish brown of the brown sugar sets nicely against the blues of the glaze. This little...

earth and thrones

8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good;     and what does the Lord require of you? … do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God?   Micah 6:8 Do you ever wonder what kind of shadow you cast on the planet?  Do you ever wonder, ponder what impact...

envy

  Someone recently asked me what one word I would use to sum up America.  Before I could self-edit, I blurted out a word which made the group of a dozen people in a lavish living room go dead silent as if i had just taken off my clothes or...

bird with red

Birds are as close to angels as I can imagine a being to be. Wings wide -long and loud, with eyes sharp - brash and unyielding. I have never really connected to the Holy Spirit as a dove like the doves outside my window growing up at Dove Haven, that...