Parable of the Sower
The truth is, I recognize a bit of myself in all the soils. Because I have been the hardened path, toughened over time from feeling trampled on, dismissed, violated, walked over. I’ve felt small seeds of joy, love, hope and faith being snatched away as I’ve experienced loss, grief, doubt. I’ve felt my faith spring up only to have it falter under the endless questions and paradoxes. Some days it feels scorched by the oppressive heat of life and the systems of injustice that continue to kill and threaten the most vulnerable. I’ve fallen among thorns and brambles- caught in pain or fear or worry with little room to stretch and grow. Church, I am all of these soils. Sometimes in the course of a single day. I’m guessing some of you have felt that way too.
Kids These Days
Our incomparable generation was and is “like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn’”.
Pride Sunday
That true communion, that ecstasy and connection which enlivens everyone, is coming into the world. S/he was in the world, and the world came into being through them; yet the world did not know them. S/he came to what was their own but their own people did not accept them. But to all who received them, who believed in their name, s/he gave the power to become the children of God, who were born, not of the forces of destruction and hatred, not of the impulse to harm, but of God.
A God Who Sees
As our comfort is threatened and stretched, we stomp out the voices that need to be heard and send them away. Sarah, an older woman who beliefs herself to be barren is trying to look out for herself and her family. She is struggling to survive as well, but hurts Hagar in doing so. She uses her privilege to punch down instead of lifting up.