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Proper 15 Year C 2025: Luke 12:49-56

One of the most helpful things when looking at sacred art is its use of symbolism. For most of our early saints, like the apostles, we have no real idea what they looked like, so there are various symbols that help us recognize who is supposed to be in an image or an icon. For example, if you see someone holding keys, that’s Saint Peter, to whom Jesus gave the “keys to the kingdom” or if you see someone with a stone, that’s Saint Stephen, who was martyred by stoning - for the most part, martyrs are depicted with the implement of their martyrdom, which is a bummer. So you do have to know something about a saint before you can spot them, but once you do it’s like you’ve cracked a code and it can make it easier to understand sacred art. But there is a sweet spot for subtlety. Too subtle, and no one knows what you’re talking about. Too on the nose, and it can feel like it lacks creativity or inspiration. A few years ago, I watched The Matrix for the first time. And as a result, the algori...
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Proper 14 Year C 2025: Genesis 15:1-6

One of my favorite books is Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South . Published in 1855, the book follows the changing situation surrounding Margaret Hale, the pastor’s daughter who finds herself moving from the agrarian South of England to the manufacturing North, following her dissenter father’s decision to leave the church. In one of the major points of conflict in the book, Margaret…tells a lie. That’s it. She tells a lie. Nevermind that it’s to protect her brother, who is a wanted man and returns to the country to say goodbye to their dying mother. She holds the guilt of this lie for pages and pages. Her male counterpart, Mr. Thornton, finds out she lied - he saw her where she said she wasn’t and, of course, recognized her although he didn’t know the man she was alone with and embracing - big no-no in 1855 - was her brother. And when her veracity is referred to as a given, Mr. Thornton hits her with the line, “is Miss Hale so given to truth?”  Abraham and Sarah’s pilgrimage of hop...
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Proper 13 Year C 2025: Luke 12:13-21

I’ve heard it said that funerals bring out the best in people. I’ve also heard it said that funerals bring out the worst in people. But in my experience, funerals bring out the most in people. Whatever you are, deepest to your core, is what the death of a close loved one will bring out in you. There is a segment of my family who are,, at their core, grifters. They’ll never turn down the opportunity to make a quick buck. And any time you see an obituary for anyone closely linked to this part of the family, no matter how long they’ve been ill, it will always say “memorials to the family for future designation”. “Future designation” meaning to line their pockets. There’s no charity those memorials are going to. It’s so much a part of who this branch of the family tree is that whenever anyone does something cheap or blatantly trying to get something from someone, my mom and I will say to one another, “memorials to the family”. It’s our code for “cheap person who will do anything to make a ...
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Proper 12 Year C 2025: Genesis 18:20-32

There’s a popular icebreaker game that I would bet most of us have played, even if you, like me, haven’t played it since childhood: telephone. We probably don’t play it as adults because HR might have problems with us getting so close to one another’s ears. But if you haven’t played telephone, the first person whispers a message into the next person’s ear, who whispers it to their neighbor, on down the line until the last person announces what message they received. The final message is usually vastly different from the original, leading to laughter throughout the group. Today’s text from Genesis mostly contains a transition. Last week we heard through verse 10. What is missing between that text and this week is that after the men tell Abraham that Sarah is to have a son, the author reminds the readers that Abraham and Sarah are old, beyond childbearing years, (complete with my favorite Biblical euphemism - “it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women” - simply meaning she...
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Independence Day 2025

On December 8, 1950 my grandfather received a letter. As he would tell the story, it began this way, “Greeting: Having submitted yourself to a Local Board composed of your neighbors for the purpose of determining your availability for training and service in the armed forces of the United States, you are hereby notified that you have now been selected for training and service in the Army.” Family story has it that Grandpa’s response to this draft notice was, “I need better neighbors.” Grandpa spent two years in Korea. He commented that he’d never been colder in his life - which is saying something coming from a farm boy from Waverly. The episode of MASH where they’re all fighting over a pair of long johns would have been true to the freezing Korea experience. But better neighbors and frigid winters aside, Grandpa was always proud of his service. Although he was not enthusiastic to report, he had military honors at his funeral. My grandpa’s relationship with the Army was complicated, as...
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Proper 8 Year C 2025: Luke 9:51-62

A 22-year-old Chicago White Sox fan was banned indefinitely from all Major League Baseball ballparks on Wednesday after he heckled Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte so cruelly that he brought Marte to tears, yelling derogatory comments about his mother who died in a car accident. News sources are not reporting on what, exactly, was said. Which is good. We don’t need a direct quote to know that his actions were unacceptable. Ketel Marte is 31 years old. He’s a grown man. He has been in the league for 11 years. So he’s been heckled. He’s heard trash talk. Especially in baseball, where there are quiet enough moments to make out a single voice from the crowd, you don’t make it that far if you don’t have some pretty thick skin. My heart breaks to think about how awful that fan must have been to bring him to tears. Marte’s teammates and manager responded by showing their love for him. His manager told him, “I love you and I’m with you and we’re all together and you’re not alone...
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Trinity Sunday, Year C 2025: Proverbs 8:1-4,22-31

Both of my daughters have “churchy” names: Ruth and Sophia. I once commented to my husband about how I “got away with” two bible-named kids and he didn’t even try for a Zelda or any type of gaming-related names, and he said “yeah, well, we still gave our kids pretty normal names.” Which is fair, I didn’t try for a Jael. Ruth is a fairly straightforward biblical tie-in, with Ruth being one of four women to have books of the Bible named after them - the others being Esther and the apocryphal Judith and Susanna. But for Sophia, you have to look a little deeper than the table of contents, because there isn’t a person in the Bible named Sophia. But she’s there - so much so that, as a parent, I think I put far more pressure on Sophia than on Ruth, because sophia is the Greek word for wisdom. The same wisdom that today’s beautiful poem from Proverbs is about. While it is true that Proverbs is written in Hebrew, where the word for wisdom is chakam , in the Greek translation of the Old Testamen...
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