Instagram is often derided (along with other forms of social media) as a platform on which we offer a heavily curated version of our lives to the world, posting only that which presents our lives as eventful, beautiful, happy. I am guilty of this. A few years ago one of my friends was visiting with …
“This Man Is God’s Son”
And then he, our Lord, our Redeemer and friend, the Beloved Son of God, dies. He expires. He breathes his last. Literally “breathed out his spirit.” In one last act of compassion, Jesus, in his death as the world in cruelty murders him, breathes out his spirit, his life, on us. He gives his life to us even as we put him to death.
“Believing Is Seeing”
A sermon on Mark 10:46-52preached at the Reformed Church of Port Ewen, New Yorkon the Fourth Sunday of Lent 2021 On the surface of it, we have a rather mundane story. Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem. The real action — the drama of the arrest, trial, suffering, and crucifixion of …
Christ In the Winepress
A sermon on Isaiah 63preached at the Reformed Church of Port Ewen, New Yorkon the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost 2020 Our passage this morning begins with a terrifying and troubling image. The prophet asks: “Who is this that comes from Edom, from Bozrah in garments stained crimson?” We are unsettled to discover it is the …
The Lover’s Dogged Pursuit
A sermon on Isaiah 62 preached at the Reformed Church of Port Ewen, New York on the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost 2020 Do you remember that first time you fell in love? You saw him from across the library at college. You watched her as she made her way to your table to take your …
Friends of God, Friends of One Another
We need not fear, as friends, looking upon each other in holy, spiritual friendship. We do not need to fear to see and be seen by our friends. We walk side-by-side as pilgrims on the way in pursuit of the face of God (Psalm 27:8). But along the way, we can stop to recline and find rest in each other’s bosom, delighting in the love of our friends as they delight in ours.
Jesus Loves Me, This I Know
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. These are some of the first words I ever learned to sing in Sunday School, some of the first words I remember ever learning. Jesus loves me, this I know. My calling to celibacy is not me holding on, white-knuckled, to a faint hope that God might take notice of me if I act heroically enough. No, it is the submission of trusting love that is elicited from me by the love of Another, by the love of God in Christ.
Spiritual Friendship Pre-Conference at Revoice 2019
Evangelicals and Culture
Unsurprisingly, I often find myself in conversations with evangelicals over my use of the word “gay” to describe my sexuality. The concern is that by using this term I am not fully rooting my "identity" in Christ, or that I am going to be tempted to sin, or that through me and others like me …
Holy Saturday, Celibacy, and Sabbath Rest
Like the farmer who lets the field lay fallow and refrains from sowing seed, celibacy brings to bear up on the life of the Church the witness of the rest of the seventh day, of the seventh year, of the seven Sabbaths of years. It speaks prophetically to the Church Militant of the Church Suffering and Expectant.
Thou Art Lightning and Love 