Christmas with Chödrön

This Christmas, a friend gave me The Pocket Pema Chödrön, which includes 108 brief insights from the books of the beloved Buddhist nun, Pema Chödrön. I haven’t spent much time with Chödrön’s writings, but after glancing through this pocketsize book, I have grown most eager to feast on her wisdom. Last year, I committed to […]

Jesus My Lord and Seva

I’ve been thinking about the Hindu concept seva, which means selfless service or service done not for the sake of personal reward. The concept helped me start to understand this tricky Gospel passage in Luke, which I was going to preach on back in October. I ended up putting the inchoate sermon on hold when […]

Ember Letter: Advent 2010

Dear Right Reverend J. Jon Bruno, Joyfully, I write this Ember Letter to you in hope that it finds you well as the Advent season makes way for Christmas. I am especially joyful to be writing this Ember Letter to you as a Postulant of the LA Diocese. I have felt this process of discernment […]

“Keep Awake”: Rumi the Raccoon

Readings for the First Sunday of Advent (Year A) Isaiah 2:1-5 Psalm 122 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44 This sermon was preached at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Albany CA on Sunday November 28, 2010. This last summer, I house-sat for a friend in Richmond, where I took care of a beautiful Samoyed dog named Stogie […]

Attitudes that Help us “Be”

Readings for All Saints Day Ecclesiasticus 44:1-1-, 13-14 Psalm 149 Revelation 7:2-4, 9-17 Matthew 5:1-12 In Thornton Wilder’s famous play Our Town, one of the main characters Emily dies in childbirth and enters an afterlife in which dead souls sit and stare blankly into nothingness, indifferent to earthly events. Emily wants to relive one more […]

How Jesus Responds to Theodicy

A Good Friday Homily Mark 15 This homily was preached in the Rev. Dr. Linda Clader’s Homiletics course at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in the Fall 0f 2010 There’s a story of a group of Jews in Auschwitz who gathered together one day to put God on trial. Their charge against God was cruelty and betrayal […]

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. Alban’s Episcopal Church on Sunday October 4, 2010. There was a discussion in a First Grade religion class focused on St. Francis of Assisi. After school, a First Grader came home very excited about what […]

Zinn and the Art of Cultivating Compassion

Readings for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost: Deuteronomy 30:9-14 Psalm 25:1-9 Colossians 1:1-14 Luke 10:25-37 This sermon was preached at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church on Sunday July 11, 2010. According to the Jewish Talmud, at a time when Jesus was around Nelson’s age,[1] there were two famous rabbis teaching in Jerusalem, Hillel and Shammai. One […]

Praise the LORD!: A Spirituality of Breath

Readings for the Second Sunday after Pentecost: 1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24) Psalm 146 Galatians 1:11-24 Luke 7:11-17 This sermon was preached at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church on Sunday June 6, 2010. A few years ago, American journalist and author A. J. Jacobs published The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the […]

Julian of Norwich’s Spirituality of Prayer

Readings for the Feast of Dame Julian of Norwich: (Acts 16:9-15) Hebrews 10:19-24 Psalm 103:1-4, 13-18 John 4:23-26 This sermon was preached at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church on Sunday May 9, 2010. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy Name. Amen. Today we celebrate one of my […]