Thoughts Along the Journey

  Mark 4:26-34 Pentecost 4 Lectionary 11 June 16, 2024 Epiphany Lutheran Church Richmond, Virginia With my first mug of coffee in the morning, I go out and sit on the screened porch. It’s a time to just sit, and to accomplish not a single thing. Instead, it’s a few minutes to calm my monkey brain that’s been going full speed since the moment I woke up. It’s a time for listening to the birds in the trees – songbirds and the woodpecker farther away in the woods. It’s a time to watch the activities of the bluebird couple who have built a nest in the bluebird box, and the cardinal couple who have built a nest in a boxwood 100 feet away; a time for watching the sun first peek through the trees. It’s a time of paying attention to the freshets of air, the breezes. It’s a time to pay attention to this moment. It’s sabbath time! During these 15 minutes, or so of sabbath time, I become aware: of what God is doing and has been doing when I was asleep, of the natur...

  Genesis 3:8-15 Pentecost 3 Lectionary 10 June 9, 2024 Epiphany Lutheran Church Richmond, Virginia Hans Tiefel has written a book! Hans is a Professor Emeritus of Religion and Ethics at William and Mary, and he’s in his mid-80s, and this is his first book! And, since I enjoy getting people together to talk about how to live our faith in public, I’ve gathered a group of folks in Williamsburg. We read a chapter of the book at a time, and get together to talk about it. And Hans participates! The book is titled, Christian Ethics Introduced . (Ethics, of course, is what governs our behavior.) And Hans’ approach is fresh and intriguing. He writes that our behavior, as followers of Jesus, is not so much paying attention to a list of things that are right and wrong. Instead, Hans proposes, it’s a simple, two-part dynamic: First, we experience the love of God. We receive God’s love! Second, we love God back, which means loving other people! Our wo...

  John 14:1-14         Easter 5         May 7, 2023   St. Martin’s Episcopal Church   Williamsburg, Virginia               “Do not let your hearts be troubled.   Believe in God, believe also in me.   In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.   If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” Are there any more comforting words in all of the Bible?   How often it is, for instance, that these words provide solace when we gather for the funeral of a loved one: how comforting it is to think of being welcomed into a heavenly rooming house, safe and secure in the care of God the Father.   “Believe in God,” says Jesus to his followers, “believe also in me.”   What if we translate that word to be “trust?”   “Trust in God,” Jesus is saying to his follo...

    The other day I drove my car when I didn’t have to.   I wanted to join some friends on a bike ride that began and ended about 10 miles from my house.   I could have ridden to the start, ridden 33 miles with the group, and then pedaled the 10 miles back home.   (I’ve done that plenty of times before!)   Instead, I contributed to the climate catastrophe that is already upon us, by burning fossil fuels.   My primary reason for riding my bicycles is because it’s fun!   My second motivation is ecological.   I began riding a bicycle as a way of life in 1970, on the first Earth Day.   That’s when I started riding my Schwinn Typhoon to school every day.   (Today we would call that a “single speed”; back then we called it a “bicycle.”   The coolest kids back then, who rode multiple-geared bikes, road Raleigh three-speeds.)   Bicycling as a way of life, with environmentalism as motivation, has influenced my living ar...

    John 4:5-42          Lent 3          March 12, 2023   St. Martin’s Episcopal Church    Williamsburg, Virginia                 What an abundance of riches for a preacher, today, in the lectionary!   All three readings invite a depth of reflection.             I’m drawn to that great story in the gospel of John.   That’s because we’re journeying through Lent.   The practices of Lent are rooted in our baptisms – and water is such an important element in this story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Think of how Lent returns us to our baptisms. Lent focusses us on practices of repentance.   The call to “Repent!” is often caricatured as something negative, a fearful warning from a pulpit pounding preacher.   But...

  Following Jesus Into Division   Luke 12:49-56, Psalm 82 Time After Pentecost      Lectionary 20      August 14, 2022 St. Mark Lutheran Church, Yorktown, VA                 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.”   Is there any gospel passage more unsettling than the one we read today?             “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?   No, I tell you, but rather division!”               These words of Jesus are shocking to those of us who are racially and economically comfortable.   They come near the end of this chapter 12 in the gospel of Luke, which we have been reading through during the past three Sundays.   Chapter 12 is a collection of stories and sayings...