Happy Easter! It's been a long, strange road this last month.  And it is more of a delight to be here than you can imagine. For the last week, since I have been well enough to do it, I take several deep breaths throughout the course of the day.  Breaths that make you feel like…

Isaiah 58:1-12 2 Corinthians 5:20 - 6:10 While it does not seem that there could be much worth liking about Ash Wednesday, it is one of my favorite times of worship.  In ancient Israel, the symbolism of ashes was understood to be a forceful reminder of the reality we so often like to evade --…

Texts:  Exodus 4:27 - 5:5 Luke 9:28 – 36 Context, as usual, is really important to understanding this odd and mysterious, but somewhat wonderful story that we tell every year on this final Sunday before Ash Wednesday. The primary source for the transfiguration of Jesus is the Gospel of Mark (9:2-8).  In Mark, Jesus makes his…

Texts: Genesis 3:1-7 Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 12 So spake our mother Eve; and Adam heard Well pleased but answer'd not: for now too nigh The Archangel stood; and from the other hill To their fix'd station, all in bright array The Cherubim descended; on the ground Gliding meteorous as evening mist Risen from a…

Texts:  Luke 8:22-39 Neither the dark queen nor the lord who rules the underworld could deny Eurydice. She was there among the shades just recently arrived, and now she walked toward them slowly, the wound still fresh upon her ankle. Orpheus took her, with the one condition: if he should turn to look at her…