Year: 2020

“Right now, in the United States we are wrestling with systemic inequality, focused on systemic racism of the Black people who were enslaved in the U.S., and whose descendants can’t hide or pass, as others have (Jews, Irish, Italian), because of their skin color. We are marching, writing, gathering in study groups, reading, and looking inward in new ways. We are hearing angry voices. Cries to deconstruct the historical artifacts which extolled those who perpetrated this enslavement. Those whose ancestors lost the Civil War are angry. And Black people, whose ancestors were survivors of that war, and who are still being subjugated by law and practice, are angry. And here we are.”

“I don’t remember another major life-shift after that until the Covid 19 epidemic came along and changed all of our lives so radically.  I still can’t believe we went from worshiping together in relative safety (though we were worried about the common cup and sanitizing our hands) to worshiping remotely via Zoom in about 48 hours.  But we did.”

“Jesus did not preach a gospel of prosperity but of giving away, sharing with one another so that no one would suffer from needing help. God gave us the independence to respond to those teachings positively or negatively. Those who followed them found that “perfect freedom” that comes from God.”

“What are the things we are called to willingly and obediently participate in, when it comes to our national life, and what are the things we are called to change in our national life to better honor our Baptismal Covenant?  We’re seeing that tension on the ground everywhere we look.  It’s painful, yet at the same time, necessary, so that the voices that have been muted can now be heard.  The hope, of course, is that all of us will somehow end up better reflecting the image of God rather than the image of a hollow false god wrapped in the symbolism of flags and statues.”

“One of the things I have always wondered at in placing these two saints together on one feast day is the way that they often seem to be the yin and the yang of discipleship—where Peter is emotional and impulsive, Paul is analytical and holds himself rigidly in check. Peter is all heart and passion, whereas, much of the time, Paul is all mind and rhetorical prowess.”