a prophetic voice-

Tomorrow, I'm supposed to be preaching about Thomas, the disciple we've tagged with the sobriquet, "Doubting Thomas"... as if the other ten guys didn't doubt. After all, the story in John's gospel takes place on the evening of the day of Resurrection... the women had visited Jesus' tomb and were told by an angel, no less, that Jesus had been raised, was no longer there. And Peter and John, two of the inner circle, had checked it out for themselves and found that the women weren't suffering from hysteria- the grave was indeed empty. Good news, right? So why are they gathered together in a locked room, shaking with fear? Afraid, perhaps, that Jesus' fate awaited them? Afraid of how they could go on without their leader, teacher, friend? Or afraid that if Jesus really were alive and showed up, he would be totally pissed off at their desertion and denials and all-round cowardice? That he would ream them out royally for their failure of...

The words came into my semi-aware consciousness from the radio  on  my bedside table..."Christian militias" the reporter on NPR was  saying,  reporting about the on-going conflict in the Central African  Republic  between Muslims and Christians. The seeming incongruity  of the words  stayed with me as I showered, preparing for the day,  and I could  not shake their oxymoronic quality. Christianity, after  all, is to be a  religion of peace, isn't it? a religion which calls for  love of BOTH neighbor  and enemy...a belief system which calls for  turning the other cheek  and caring for the last and least. So how  has it become a source of  and justification for war? When and how  did we humans come to the  conclusion that the only way for me  to be right is for you to be wrong? And why has that become so  important? How did we reach this place in  human history wh...

A holy Sabbath, one and all. Though Sunday has, in this modern age, lost much of its cachet as a "day of rest" or even a day of worship, for those of us who grew up in a quieter, simpler time, it is still most often a day when the pace of life slows and thoughts can turn to matters of faith and our spiritual journey, our relationship with the Divine. For me, "faith" has become synonymous with trust...the belief in something beyond myself...the belief in a connectedness with the Holy that I can neither explain nor prove, but which I simply find deeply, intuitively real and true. Over the years, this journey of mine has taken me on a variety of pathways, some far more complex than others, some going far-afleid from the faith tradition in which I was raised; but always, I have found, these paths converged with and complemented one another, deeply enriching the ways in which I view what is sacred, what is holy, what is divine. And as I am a storyteller, I have collect...

That is sanctity: the wholeness of giving the gift of all your self. Not waiting till that self is fine and moral and healthy and balanced enough to expose. -Rowan Williams stripping down… Over the years, I have ejected lots of spiritual “baggage: which no longer served me well. I am trying to “travel light”…to shed the constraints of tenets, creeds, beliefs which only bind, which no longer fit.   Is there some blessedness, I wonder, in walking around           naked? ass/u/me Why do we so often assume that people of faith never experience      brokenness?      discouragement?      despair? Why do we so often assume, even in this modern age,      that illness & misfortune are      signs of lack of faith? Why do we so often assume that we know who has God...

A beautiful good morning, dear ones, far and near. Another day of our Holy Week journey...another day of our life's holy journey... another day of asking and wondering and seeking answers for the questions of life. Another day of trying to define "faith", since this is what keeps so many of us on the path. Is "faith", perhaps, the effort to believe in light when we're covered by clouds and cannot see the sun? Of course, the sun is there ...we know that with the head, the intellect..but the heart questions, doubts...and so the skepticism born of our emotional blindness renders us unable to see truth, experience reality...the reality that the clouds will come, time and again, and that rainy days can be the most blessed of times, bringing green and glorious life, punctuated by living color. May the day ahead be filled with the awareness of light, of sunshine, even if gray clouds fill your vision. This, too, shall pass...as surely as day follows night...as su...

Dear ones, with the on-going tragic news from Japan, more deaths, continual aftershocks, the meltdown at the nuclear plant, i have heard any number of people reflecting that "God" should do something...wondering why "God" caused the earthquake and tsunami to happen. And it has made me wonder yet again about this thing we call "faith"...what it is and is not. This morning, i began a thought-provoking little book by Sister Joan Chittister and Archbishop Rowan Williams, Uncommon Gratitude: Alleluia for All that Is and found that the very first chapter was entitled "Faith". The words of Joan Chittister rang so true with me as i read that i happily share them with you with the hope that they will provoke thought...reflection...discussion.    The fact is that it might well be that deep down we are still substituting a kind of magic for faith. God we make a cornucopia of human desires, a vending machine of human delights. We coax God to be on our si...