Jesus named Simon “Peter,” which means “rock.” But Peter looks like anything but a rock. He’s not strong like granite or shimmering like gold. Given the evidence, Jesus could have named him “cowardly,” “impetuous” or “dense.” But Jesus knows the violence we do to...
“Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood. Because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned, especially for His suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them. This I believe to be...
Your great mistake is to act the drama as if you were alone. As if life were a progressive and cunning crime with no witness to the tiny hidden transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely, even you, at times, have felt the...
“The Glories of His Righteousness and Wonders of His Love….” Again and again this season, in images and songs, we are charmed by the thought of a dutiful husband, a bold teenage girl and a helpless child as the delivery system for God’s love and power in the...
It was an angel’s explanation to Joseph in a dream that changed everything. His mind was made up. The plan was to quietly disentangle himself from Mary’s unlikely pregnancy story. His plan was painful but practical. But, now comes his own angel encounter. Same...
John spoke his question for Jesus through a prison window. “Is our hope safe with you, Jesus, or should we hope in someone different?” The question is as old as the Bible and as new as today’s sunrise. Jesus answers indirectly by saying, “Blind see; lame walk;...
2019 Bishop’s Address to the 113th Annual Council of The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. The gathering idea for this year’s Council is “…worshiping joyfully.” We pull that directly from our shared purpose statement: “We...
When the Bible and prayer book speak of worshipping joyfully or just joy, they agree that joy most fully happens in response to God. And, it most reliably occurs when we are being and offering our full selves. The backdrop for this can be silence, service, spoken word...
God wants to do a new thing, call it an opening. This is how God operates: Death into life. A slave revolt in Egypt. Our God makes a way out of no way. Many feel that life has become a gerbil wheel-exertion with little progress at great cost. God wants more for us and...
James Bond likes his martinis “shaken, not stirred.” But, according to St. Paul, God likes God’s people stirred, not shaken. We are stirred by the fact that we’re partners with God in God’s righteous purposes. Stirred that we have been given the good news that God is...
