Isaiah 40:11; written and produced by the Rev. Joe Chambers
Articles
March 9, 2013
During my senior year in high school, I was in a terrible skiing accident in which I collided with a tree, and broke two bones in my leg. The accident left me bed-ridden for several weeks, as my leg healed from surgery. To add insult to injury, my high school love broke up with me the week...
March 8, 2013
“He reached from on high, he took me, he drew me out of mighty waters.” (2 Samuel 22:17)
Our reading from 2 Samuel today reminds us what true healing from God looks like. It is not a kind of simple “over-the-counter” type of healing that merely solves the pains of the current moment....
March 7, 2013
Last year for Lent, I didn’t give something up, but took something on instead: praying the Daily Office. That is, I set out to pray in the morning and evening every day, using a pattern of psalms, scripture readings, and prayers laid out in the Book of Common Prayer. Following this pattern...
March 6, 2013
Whenever a church hires a new pastor, there’s a buzz that generates across the congregation. Questions like, “Will he be like so-and-so?” or “Will she preach better than you-know-who?” captivate the thoughts of parishioners. Sometimes a person in a congregation will have an image of who you are...
March 5, 2013
This past spring, I had the opportunity to travel with my fellow seminarians studying restorative justice to Riverbend High Security Penitentiary in Tennessee. Several educators and clergy from the Nashville area have been working at this prison for nearly 15 years alongside “insiders” (as the...
March 4, 2013
Lent is a time of taking on duties and giving up pleasures. It is also a time for accepting the gifts God gives, and letting go of our control of the world. In Lent, Jesus stepped into the wilderness, not knowing what would come, but allowing God to direct his path.
Today’s reading tells...
March 3, 2013
The dining hall at the college where I teach offers students who are on a meal plan limitless food. Those not on a meal plan can pay a flat rate to enter the all-you-can-eat cafeteria. Recently, the College made a move to eliminate trays. Trays add to the amount of water needed to wash the...
March 2, 2013
Although I've recited Psalm 95 at Morning Prayer thousands of times, whenever I read it I am always transported back to the beautiful, stark chapel of Westcott House, Cambridge, England, the seminary that formed me as a deacon and a priest. I was in my mid-20s, literally being formed, as the...
March 1, 2013
“He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the...
February 28, 2013
Lent is a perplexing liturgical season. We do the complete opposite of what we think we normally should do. For the most part, we are taught that we should lift our pains and our sorrows up to God, and that Christ will help us bear these burdens. But during Lent, we are asked instead to give up...