The presidential debate last Tuesday night was 90-minutes of back and forth that was a lot of what we have already heard...except for one very disturbing comment from the former president.&n… Read More

I don't often get to highlight the powerful women in Scripture and the way that they get God's attention. So when one of their stories pops up in the lectionary...well, I have to talk about… Read More

After yet another mass shooting incident at a school...this time in Winder, Georgia, a rural community between Atlanta and Athens...I found it hard to concentrate on the upcoming lessons for… Read More

We had a snafu on Sunday. At the passing of the peace, I noticed that our service, normally livestreamed to Facebook, had not been started for the online community (we do have people show up… Read More

Welcome back to me! I was away for ten wonderful days...driving from Florida to a workshop in Byfield, MA, at Adelynrood. This retreat center is run by the Society of Companions of the… Read More

I wasn't sure where I was going to be headed with this sermon. I was having a tough time figuring out how to start and how to deal with a pericope that sounds just like the Gospel reading fr… Read More

The 50th annivesary of the "Irregular Ordinations" in Philadelphia came and went on July 29th. For me, and the many thousand of women clergy in the Episcopal Church, this was a big deal. Wha… Read More

My, my what a week! Our politics in the USA have taken more twists and turns than a steep mountain road in the Appalachians! Then this weekend with the opening of the Olympics on F… Read More

 We're living in a time when we are at each other's throats all the time, thanks in no small part to the discord being fomented by one of the two major political parties in this country… Read More

All was well last Saturday afternoon in my corner of the planet. I was at a concert listening to some interesting and beautiful music, art songs with Sapphic themes. It was a real treat and… Read More

Welcome back to me! I was out of town for Sunday, June 30th attending the wedding of my seminary friend, Sarah, to her bride Jen in Huntsville, Alabama. It was a HUGE event. Seriously: somet… Read More

On Wednesday...Juneteenth...I was remembering the day that would have been my mom's 97th birthday. As a way of marking the date, I posted a video I had made for her memorial service in Talla… Read More

After last Sunday...and the week I have had in ministry...you could say that this Sunday's lectionary readings were programmed for me. I have been struggling and at times have wondered if… Read More

 We changed the altar hangings. We switched the lectionary readings. We planned a party with hamburgers and hot dogs afterwards. We had just over a dozen people come to church.Thes… Read More

I remember walking with a friend on my seminary campus back in 2018. We were talking about the elections, and the state of our political climate. Being as close to Washington, D.C. as we wer… Read More

I have never been lucky enough to pass off preaching on Trinity Sunday to someone else. And I really don't like the expectation that the sermon needs to "explain" the Trinity with some wonde… Read More

I am stunned I was able to get this sermon written!Almost immediately after driving home from Valdosta after last Sunday's service, I was back in a car, making the 14+ hour trip to Austin, T… Read More

I don't feel the need to do a lot of explaining here. Needless to say Ascension Day came and went...and where I lived was greeted the next day with two...possibly three...EF2 tornadoes and 1… Read More

This was a first for St. Barnabas: a celebration of the Rogation Days, a practice from the 5th Century England where the priests and church would bless the land in hopes of a fruitful harves… Read More

Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch by Blair PirasThere were so many directions I could've gone in on with these lectionary readings, but I felt it so strongly that I needed to talk about this s… Read More

Since we're living in a world where tribalism and division seem to be the norm, I felt the need to address the underpinnings of white Christian Nationalism in a way that might get some peopl… Read More

 I could have called this "Deja vu all over again" but I cut that line from the sermon figuring that those who missed last week's Gospel lesson from John, and those who were there, woul… Read More

As I read through the lessons for this Sunday, I couldn't help but think what a coincidence it was that we would be talking about light and darkness on the heels of remembering the death of… Read More

If my sermon for the Easter Vigil encountered a hiccup because of the shorter ending of Mark, at least my sermon for the 11am Easter service was the well-worn story from John's Gospel. Tryin… Read More

Sometimes, it helps to double check the Gospel before you write your sermon. I was surprised as I listened to the Deacon telling us the story of the empty tomb in Mark to hear her continue p… Read More

“It is finished.” The last words of Jesus according to John. We had an interesting discussion recently about this line among the people who were preparing to give voice to the… Read More

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” This simple phrase is really the bedrock of our Christian faith. If we live in love and have love for one another&he… Read More

This one doesn't require an introduction. But I bid your prayers for me and all clergy and lay leaders during this week, which is a liturgical marathon. Text: Mark 11: 1-11+++Palm Sunda… Read More

For a third week in a row, I have found myself challenged with what to say and how to say it when it comes to the Gospel. I had stuck in a joke about "seeing Jesus" as in the Ralph Kramden… Read More

This was a tough one to preach just because the words of John 3:16 are soooooooooo well known. But thank goodness I listen regularly to NPR when I'm driving and can catch snippets of program… Read More

This is Year B, the Year of Mark's Gospel. But the original evangelist doesn't always give us enough meat on the bones of the Jesus story. And so, this week (and next) we will have stories f… Read More

 I've had a week. So has the world. Wars in Gaza and Ukraine drag on and our Congress is of no help to anyone with the Republicans preferring to kowtow to a disgraced presidential… Read More

Happy Birthday to me! The last time Ash Wednesday coincidied with Valentine's Day was on my 50th birthday.And that same day...a 17 year-old entered Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in P… Read More

Well, it finally happened. I spent several hours on Friday struggling to get some kind of a coherent thought down on paper for my sermon. I managed to finish some time just before 9pm… Read More

It was Friday morning. I knew I had to get my sermon for Sunday finished because we were into the final rehearsal and performance of a massive project: putting on a staged reading of the Gos… Read More

What can I say: the lectionary diviners dished up a story of an exorcism, and that just reawakened my fascination with evil...and the things that infect our hearts and turn us inward and not… Read More

Sometimes when I sit down to write my sermons, I have a pretty clear idea of the direction I want to go and the message that I hope will be heard.Other times, I feel as if I am yanking my ow… Read More

I have been lackadaisical about updating this blog, but for good reason. My mother-in-law passed away shortly after the 1st of the year, and so I had to quickly pull some things together and… Read More

I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to handle preaching on the opening to John's Gospel. It has such an otherwordly quality that I find it hard to grasp the best way into it. But with pra… Read More

 This has been a really rough year for so many in my congregation. Hurricane Idalia is still messing with people's lives as they fight with their insurance companies over damages. Other… Read More

There is something seriously unfair about having Advent 4 and Christmas Eve on the same day. Beginning with the crunch it places on those of us preaching and leading services, not to mention… Read More

Self-revelation: I am under the weather with a really nasty head cold. When I tried to read this sermon to my wife, I had to stop repeatedly because I was coughing so much. So already, with… Read More

 One of the things I am aware of serving at St. Barnabas is that we are the closest Episcopal Church to Moody Air Force Base; hence, when members of the Air Force look for an Episcopal… Read More

And in a blink of an eye, it's Advent! People always ask if you're ready for Christmas. But I have to admit, when I woke up Sunday morning, I couldn't say for certain that I was ready f… Read More

At long last, we've reached the end of this very long season of "After Pentecost." Ready or not, Advent is coming...and that means new projects to run alongside that idea that we're supporse… Read More

As I contemplated the parable of the talents in Matthew, I couldn't help thinking about a poem that I have often retrned to because of its question at the end. Mary Oliver presses us to thin… Read More

Our diocesan convention took place in Augusta, which for those who don't know the geography of this region is basically on the other end of the earth from Tallahassee. OK, not really...but i… Read More

With all the bad news out there these days (and it has been really bad!) it felt to me that I needed to keep up with the theme of last week and remind us that we were not made to be destruct… Read More

This has been another terrible week in the world. Not only are things escalating in the war between Israel and Hamas, I was shocked and deeply saddened when I opened Facebook about 9:30pm on… Read More

Sermon for 21A PentecostProper 24October 22, 2023  Last week, I was off at Virginia Theological Seminary to celebrate my alma mater's Bicenntenary. It was fun to visit with a few o… Read More