This is a follow up to a post I made last night about Vice President Pence’s policy to not be alone with any woman who is not his wife. You can read the first post here. In the conversation on Facebook about that post, people brought up sexual misconduct between clergy/priests and parishioners. They brought…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho April 2, 2017 Luke 18:31-19:10 Blindness is a popular image in scripture. The psalmist tells us: The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. And Isaiah is fond of using blindness…
(At this link, you will find a video of just the sermon and a page with the liturgy from the service.) A sermon preached at the 2017 NEXT Church Conference in Kansas City. March 14, 2017 John 4: 15-18; 29 It’s a little jarring for me to tell only that small portion of the story…
Our president has recently followed through on campaign pledges to ‘make America safe again’ (or is it great again? I can’t remember) by increasing the deportations of “bad hombres“. In reality, this just means people who are living here without legal documentation, as mothers are being separated from their American born children, and Immigration Customs…
Yesterday I drove to Reno. There’s a whole lot of empty miles on that drive, which was good. Because I needed that much open space to process the journey. I’ve come to Reno to meet my birth mother. And my thoughts are as cloudy as that horizon. I don’t know how today will go. She…
President Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 27 that bars Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. indefinitely and bars all other refugees for 120 days, and keeps out visitors for 90 days from seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Initially, as ABC News reported, administration officials said the…
There’s an article being shared by my conservative friends (thanks for not unfriending me!) and by a few of my progressive friends who think they can keep their Facebook profiles neutral. (I’m glad you exist, neutral unicorns). It’s a story about a Hillary Clinton campaign bus that illegally dumped human waste in a storm drain…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho October 16, 2016 1 Samuel 1:1-11, 19-20; 2:1-11 The Ark of the Covenant resided in Shiloh. It was here that Elkanah and his two wives, Penninah and Hannah, would come to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts. And, each year, as they…
I went ahead and contacted one of my aunts and uncles (my birth mother’s youngest sister and husband). They did not know I existed, but have been kind enough to answer some of my questions about the family genealogy. They have sent me two books of family history, including photos of people who had previously…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church Boise, Idaho October 2, 2016 Exodus 12:1-13 and 13:1-9 In last week’s episode, 400 years ago, the Book of Genesis ended with the struggles of the family of Jacob being wrapped up with a neat bow. And the Israelites thrived in Egypt. They followed God’s Promise to be…
Glass Overflowing 