tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56678674214715613562024-03-27T16:53:31.910-07:00faultlinesthe techtonic plates of faith and doubt...jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.comBlogger219125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-36983176290026264282024-03-25T08:08:00.000-07:002024-03-25T08:08:18.280-07:00Choose Your Gate Adventure John 12:12-19 So come with me to early Spring, circa AD 33. It’s been a dry winter in Judea, and you’ve been preparing the fields for planting. It’s hard work, ploughing the fields with rudimentary tools, and you are exhausted from day. They’re not your fields, of course; they belong to a rich overseer, who, once he has been paid, will sometimes condescend to throw you a few pennies in jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-19304299819967444312024-03-18T09:11:00.000-07:002024-03-18T09:11:31.064-07:00Finding Our Octopus: When Dying Brings Us to Life John 12:20-33 At the beginning of the 2020 documentary, “My Octopus Teacher,” filmmaker Craig Foster tells the story of how he had lost his love for life. He’d sort of lost who he was. Burned out from his work that had taken him all around the world, and deeply depressed, he goes back to his South African home to try to reconnect with what really matters in his life. He couldn’t find it. Tojennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-57781134706772393612024-03-11T11:43:00.000-07:002024-03-11T11:43:56.465-07:00The Eternal Now John 3:14-21Ok. Two wild passages for today. Two passages about snakes and lifting up and poison and healing and eternal life. I love these passages. And I don’t understand them at all. First, we have a bunch of folks wandering the wilderness who are complaining about the food they say they don’t have. And when a bunch of poisonous snakes attack and Moses intercedes, in what, I assume is jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-75391065424096232212024-02-05T09:03:00.000-08:002024-02-05T09:03:16.012-08:00Healed People Heal Mark 1:29-39 If you were to walk into my house, you would find piles of folded laundry on my coffee table. The kitchen countertops would be covered in cereal boxes, stacks of junk mail, an overflowing compost bin, spilt coffee grounds and many many crumbs of unknown origin. We have dust bunnies in the corners, questionable stickiness in the fridge, and fingerprints on all the stainless jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-29960430569784785262024-01-29T08:05:00.000-08:002024-01-29T08:05:00.786-08:00Show Don't Tell: The Messianic Secret in Mark's GospelMark 1:21-28 (Or the whole Gospel of Mark, really)I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. Somewhere deep in my basement, I have a box of journals full of half-written stories, terrible poems with forced rhymes, and self-indulgent reflections on the dramatic emotions of a preteen. As I grew in my skills as a writer, or at least, I hope I’ve grown, there is one piece of advice I jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-32318906194112828412024-01-22T08:05:00.000-08:002024-01-22T08:06:44.311-08:00Where to Start the Story? Avengers Disciples Assemble!Mark 1:14-20The Gospel of Mark was written sometime around the late 60’s or early 70’s. It was written somewhere between 30 and 40 years after Jesus’s death. Mark is the earliest Gospel we have, so these are the first preserved words written about Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. 30 to 40 years have passed after they crucified Christ, and jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-18287713562855911522024-01-15T09:55:00.000-08:002024-01-15T09:55:34.961-08:00Cognitive Dissonance and the Peanut Butter Burger1 Samuel 3:1-10John 1:43-51 It happens the first time the almost teenager sleeps in. This kid who has woken up at six in the morning every day of his life suddenly sleeps until ten. It happens when the eight year old tells you he chose a salad at school for lunch today. It happens when the sun is shining in January, or when you dip apples in cheese fondue and the tart crunchiness complementsjennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-87363355287961115382024-01-08T09:35:00.000-08:002024-01-08T09:35:39.035-08:00Peeing Downstream Mark 1:4-11 When I first started backpacking, the thing that I was most concerned about wasn’t the bears, the possibility of getting lost, the trail rations or the iodine infused drinking water, it was the bathroom. How did that work? You just stopped, wherever you were and dropped your pants and let’er rip? That is what the animals do, (I mean, without the pants) after all. The deer and jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-91476870099523608892023-12-28T06:52:00.000-08:002023-12-28T06:52:48.773-08:00Our Song Luke 2:1-20Sam and David were embroiled in a serious religious debate. They were arguing over the resurrection of the dead. Sam pulled his ratty cloak tighter to his chest and sided with the Sadducees, who said that there was no resurrection, because there was no evidence of that in the scriptures. But David, rubbing his hands near the fire, argued that surely the Pharisees were right, jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-69432470332949447842023-12-17T10:28:00.000-08:002023-12-17T10:28:35.848-08:00Mary's (Punk Rock) Song Luke 1:26-56Last month, we stole all the linchpins from the soldiers’ wagons. A few weeks before that, we threw rotten eggs down on them from the bridge. Tonight, we were waiting for Matt to get here with the sheep dung, so we could shove it in this burlap sack, grab our flint and wool, and sneak over to the barracks, throw it in a bale of hay and set it ablaze. The sleeping soldiers won’t jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-32843202785001285022023-12-11T06:31:00.000-08:002023-12-11T06:31:43.066-08:00Elizabeth's SongLuke 1:24-45 God and I had settled on an uneasy truce a long time ago. After years and years of nothing but silence, I just stopped asking. No more “Hello? Hello? Are you there? Hello?” And then listening to the stifling silence. Zechariah, the stubborn fool, still went to Temple, still lit the candles and the incense, still did his duties as the temple priest with the diligence of any jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-67943873261621750482023-12-03T16:40:00.000-08:002023-12-03T16:40:27.201-08:00Zechariah's Song Luke 1:67-79Jon Jon was pestering his dad again. “Dad! Dad! Tell the story again! Tell the story about how I came to you. Don’t leave out the Roman Soldiers or the Angel of Light or how you couldn’t talk for months and months while momma carried me in her belly.” “All right, Jon Jon,” said Zechariah. “Since your birthday’s coming soon, I’ll tell you the story again. But no jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-51959089272182442802023-11-28T10:41:00.000-08:002023-11-28T10:41:03.347-08:00God in the Goats? Matthew 25:31-46 I’ve worked quite a bit with folks who are experiencing homelessness. I’ve tried to feed them, to listen to their stories, to help them get social services, driven them to emergency mental health clinics. There’ve been some really beautiful moments. But there was one guy, let’s call him “Dave,” who was all the things, all at once. He was the quintessential “least of these.”jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-62915518256637999042023-11-21T06:58:00.000-08:002023-11-21T06:58:08.830-08:00A Stewardship Sermon?Matthew 25:14-30 This is a tough one, y’all. Well, most of them are tough, especially the ones that end with the weeping and gnashing of teeth. But this one feels extra tough. I think it’s because this passage is always used for Stewardship Sunday - you know the whole giving of your talents thing, and what you give will come back to you, and the prosperity gospel, and good stewards of their jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-61274605416863864792023-10-17T09:19:00.002-07:002023-10-17T09:20:09.505-07:00An Epistolary Sermon - take 2 - (three years later)Matthew 22:1-14Dear God,Well, here we are again, back for another round of liturgical shadowboxing. Three glorious years have passed since I’ve had to tackle this parable in a sermon, and I must admit, it was delightful to pretend to be oblivious that this impossible story exists in our canon. But here it is again, like a bad penny, determined to have me questioning every part of my faith, and jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-67456624857205346302023-10-03T07:39:00.005-07:002023-10-03T07:46:24.972-07:00Monty Python and the Theology of Change *A knight who says "Ni"Matthew 21:23-32You might need this link too: jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-85316785607964761362023-09-04T06:50:00.002-07:002023-09-04T06:50:59.460-07:00Six Days.Matthew 16:21-28 The absolute worst words someone could say to me are the words “I am so disappointed in you.” Sure, lots of words come a close second like “I hate you,” “you are dumb,” “no getting up from this table until you finish your lima beans,” but the worst words are those that suggested that I was once in a good place, and now I’m in a bad. The words, “I’m so disappointed in you,” jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-22928440870968689072023-08-28T08:48:00.004-07:002023-08-28T08:50:07.027-07:00Human Bricks Matthew 16:13-20Now, I’m no architect, but I do admit to having extensive experience with…Legos. As a mom of two boys, and the once preferred babysitter of a whole bunch of kids in my teens, I have an advanced degree in Lego building. And if you go way far back, before my own kids, before the $3/hour babysitting gigs, you’d find me holed up somewhere in a corner of my house with the jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-34563376170804013392023-08-14T07:01:00.001-07:002023-08-14T07:09:20.483-07:00When Pigs Fly. Matthew 14:22-33Every three years, this passage comes up in our lectionary, and every three years, I struggle with what to do with it. I’m all about it when God comes to us in the human form of Jesus. It gets harder for me to relate to when Jesus comes to us in the form of God. These so called “nature miracles,” where Jesus defies all the laws and breaks all the natural rules and upends thejennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-26208290104507369962023-08-07T06:51:00.006-07:002023-08-07T06:51:58.953-07:00Hands Full of NothingGenesis 32:22-31Matthew 14:13-21 In our passage today it’s so easy to forget Jesus. There’s just so much stuff everywhere. There’s the fish and the loaves and the crowds and all their need. There’s the disciples and the wilderness and the illnesses and brokenness. And we sort of forget Jesus. I mean, we remember the superhero, defy the laws of physics Jesus who can make food somehow appear jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-68724974169726060602023-07-30T15:16:00.001-07:002023-07-30T15:23:34.369-07:00Cosmic Lucky CharmsMatthew 13:31-33, 44-52 I have a very specific, very particular way of eating my Lucky Charms. First, you have to sort out the oats from the marshmallows. My spoon deftly slideshow and darts between the green clovers, yellow stars, red balloons and purple horseshoes to find every single sugary oat before I’m even allowed to touch the marshmallow confections. Then, and only then, when every jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-69081924845985561142023-06-26T16:12:00.002-07:002023-06-26T16:14:16.680-07:00The Brown BirdsMatthew 10:24-39It’s rare that I get to see a goldfinch. When I do, it’s sort of magical; they look almost unreal. Their golden heads are just so, so, golden. They’re gorgeous, and it’s such a treat when one lands on the feeder. It’s so great. They’re so…obvious. I know one when I’ve seen one. It’s like God shouting out to me, “pay attention! There is beauty here!”I’ve got this whole setup in my jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-90009407506563309502023-06-15T06:26:00.001-07:002023-06-15T06:26:16.869-07:00In Medias Res -- To Save the World Entire Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26Goodness. If this isn’t a…”Squirrel!” Passage, I don’t know what is. There’s so much going on here. One thing after another. We barely catch our breath from the first miracle and we’ve already moved on to the next. So much is happening here that it’s hard to get our bearings. There’s this literary device I learned about in my English classes. It’s Latin, of course jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-13432160792916605102023-06-04T18:16:00.000-07:002023-06-04T18:16:42.874-07:00Over. With. In. A Sermon for Trinity Sunday A Trinity of Trillium: Photo Credit - Rich HanlonRead me! Matthew 28:16-20In honor of my son asking the age old question over his algebra homework, “When are we jennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5667867421471561356.post-41514375294085248582023-05-24T18:47:00.002-07:002023-05-24T18:47:56.404-07:00The Ascension: Presence in the AbsenceActs1:1-14 - read me! Like Rachel Held Evans, the Ascension has me struggling with feelings of abandonment. She says to Jesus, “I can’t help but think that if you’d stayed a little longer, we might have avoided the Crusades. Or the Great Schism. Or that time we used the Bible to justify slavery and invoked “Manifest Destiny” to slaughter women and children. We’ve made a messjennhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01407174318459336287noreply@blogger.com1