Seeing the Transfiguration in All of Us

Listen to sermon here: Transfiguration Sermon Readings for the Last Sunday after Epiphany: Exodus 34:29-35 Psalm 99 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-36 This sermon was preached at Episcopal Church of the Nativity in San Rafael CA on Sunday February 10, 2013. About 1700 years ago, a Roman emperor imprisoned a kind-hearted priest for secretly conducting […]

Judging God: Why Protest Prayer Persists in Judaism and Disappears in Christianity

INTRODUCTION: “An Arbiter Between Us” Overwhelmed with grief and coated with boils, the righteous man Job sits in ashes and laments, “There is no arbiter between us.” His comforters, who appear to offer more consolation in their silence than in their speech, understand that the “us” in Job’s complaint comprises Job and his God. Because […]

Ember Letter: Advent 2012

Dear Right Reverend J. Jon Bruno, I hope this Ember letter finds you warm and well. I appreciate the simultaneous joy and upheaval proclaimed in the readings for this Advent season. Paul overflows with thanksgiving and blessings while Jesus and John the Baptist warn about cosmic and imminent catastrophe. The concurrence of bliss and disaster […]

Loosening My Grip on Spiritual Classics

This paper was presented at the University of Chicago Divinity School at the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality during the “Reading and Teaching: Spiritus as Pedagogical Resource” panel. In teaching the course Comparative Theology as Spiritual Practice, I asked my students to compare a spiritual classic from their […]

The Empathy of a Sissy

Readings for the Feast Day of St. Francis Galatians 6:14-18 Psalm 148:7-14 Matthew 11:25-30 This sermon was preached at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Novato CA on Sunday October 7, 2012. “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things form the wise and the intelligent and have revealed […]

Welcoming Ourselves as Children of God

Readings for the Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity – Proper 20 Track 1 (Year B) Proverbs 31 Psalm 1 James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a Mark 9:30-37 This sermon was preached at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in San Rafael CA on September 23, 2012. A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on their way to […]

Ember Letter: Holy Cross Day 2012

Dear Right Reverend J. Jon Bruno, As always, I hope this Ember letter finds you well, full of health and life. This year I am struck by the line from Isaiah in the readings for Holy Cross Day, which reads, “Thus says the LORD, Declare and present your case.” In the Hebrew Scriptures, I see […]

Abundance Right in Front of Us

Readings for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Year B) 2 Samuel 18: 5-9, 15, 31-33 Psalm 130 Ephesians 4:25-5:2 John 6:35, 41-51 This sermon was preached at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley CA on August 12, 2012. One day in Sunday school, the teacher was sharing the story of creation with the children, specifically […]

Teresa’s Butterfly and Paul’s Thorn

Listen to sermon here: Teresa’s Butterfly and Paul’s Thorn Readings for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 9 Year B) Psalm 123 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 Mark 6:1-13 This sermon was preached at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Monte-Carlo, Monaco on July 8, 2012 Although Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you ever pray is […]

Dancing with the Trinity Through Common Prayer

Listen to Sermon Here: Dancing with the Trinity Readings for the First Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday (Year B) Isaiah 6:1-8 Psalm 29 Romans 8:12-17 John 3:1-17 This sermon was preached at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley CA on June 3, 2012. One day, Jesus asked his disciples, “Whom do people say that I […]