Please sing with me: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” This is the Sunday to sing that song because Jesus says to his […]

Merry Christmas! How many times will we speak that phrase, give that blessing, to friends, family, and strangers? Every year I say it hundreds of times to parishioners as we leave this service. What do we mean by these simple yet profound words of greeting, parting, joyful delighting, and blessing? Merry Christmas… Like all words, […]

There are some here today feeling, wondering, “Is it the end of the world?” And there are some who have come here today who are hopeful and excited about the results of the election. And there are some here today who are just tired of hearing about the election.

This word from the Lord promises a healing in the aftermath of hurt. After breaking comes re-making. After the crisis comes a re-creating. We pray with hope for God’s grace. O God be merciful to us, for we long for you to make us whole again. We long to be made whole again.

What does it mean to pray? What does it mean to pray to God, God the creator of all, the God of Jesus, the God of David, the God of Mary? What does it mean to pray? One of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century tells us that prayer is something that “exerts an influence upon God’s very existence”–that prayer changes the very nature of God’s existence. So prayer – a conversation – between the one who speaks and the one who listens has the capacity to change God and us.