“Today is the pause before the plunge that sweeps over those who remember and mourn. I wonder about how we honor the memory of those who gave their lives for others, and how we remember the messages of love as well as the images of destruction from that day.”
“The Gospel appointed for today is John 12:24–28, where Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Clearly, the martyrs we commemorate today were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice as they followed Jesus.”
In an email sent to the Sewanee community earlier today, the Board of Regents at Sewanee announced that it formally repudiates the doctrine of the
“Give us courage in the face of adversity.
Give us peace in the eye of a storm.
Give us strength for the road ahead.”
Priest says unrepentant Catholics who vote Democratic go to hell; bishop agrees.
Pastor defiant about holding services during pandemic despite wedding that killed three persons who did not attend.
An Episcopal Church closes.
“Do we not now live out Job’s life? The national situation is horrendous. What started out as a cry for the end to systemic racism is rapidly turning into a race war, and dozens of identity wars. We need to pray that our mouths be filled with the Spirit so that we can proclaim, not in arrogance, but with authority, God’s Truth. But right now we feel like Job. But we are also Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, insisting on our own wisdom in our ignorance, and, in doing so, distracting from the only true Wisdom, that of God. We need to make our confession, but not a breast-beating act of showmanship, but humble in the wonder and grace of God. As did Job.”
“Rather there’s a spiritual wakefulness that anchors us to a deeper belonging. Having awakened I need to wake up again, from ordinary consciousness into an awareness of my union with God. At this next level I feel the peace that passes understanding. I am not any less passionate nor any less aware of my obligations. But I realize that in duty and anguish I am doing what I was born to do, learning what I was created to learn. God breathes the tainted air with me and helps me feel the greatest connection, the one that runs from God’s self through every single one of us.”
Time to move into the good news
Special guest Beth Beall joins to discuss Jesus’ teaching about the process of reconciling wrongs within community from this week’s gospel.
In the first of a series of conversations about what we are doing with liturgy and music in the midst of this pandemic, we talk to Micah Walter