Getting Lost in the Woods

Our passage today focuses on Jesus’ royal entrance into Jerusalem for Passover.It’s easy to imagine: Leafy branches waving in the air and scattering the path. Jesus riding on a colt. The energetic crowd cheering and singing ‘Hosanna’. The procession probably felt similar to when we have watched floats and marching bands pass by the church for the Franklin County Fair parade; or the parades held in Boston after one of our regional teams won a national title; or like the crowds gathered for a presidential inauguration.  We know what that energy and fun feels like in our bones.  This kind of procession has an air of triumph and provides a common bond amongst the gathered people.  Yet we know where this journey through Holy Week will take us.  It will be this same crowd, or a very similar one, who days later will be crying out, ‘Crucify him’.  After the storming of the capital on January 6, we know all too well how a crowd’s purpose can shift in an instant, from bo...

One of the core values of the Anglican tradition is reflected in the three legged stool.  This idea that Anglican theology and practice are informed by three legs which must be kept in balance in order for the stool to remain steady.  Those three legs are scripture, tradition, and reason.  It has always felt empowering that our theology and practice is informed by scripture, tradition,  and reason .  As we learn and evolve as a species, so does our understanding of God.  I sometimes imagine God’s dream for creation is like a very large piece of marble, and that as stewards of God’s creation, we have been charged with doing the sculpting.  As stewards, our job is not to decide what the marble block will become, but to faithfully chip away at the marble so the sculpture, God’s dream, might become fully unveiled.  Each generation has slowly chipped away at the marble.   As the block takes on different shapes, we sometimes believe we ha...

Forty is a biblical number denoting a very long time . The Israelites were in the wilderness forty years . Jesus was in the wilderness forty days . And we have been in our own wilderness for three hundred and forty seven days .* It has been a very long time , indeed. A long time  since we broke bread together.  Since we felt that peace which passeth all understanding as it spreads throughout our entire body as we receive communion alongside our fellow parishioners.  Such  a very long time  since we harmonized a favorite hymn or embraced one another in a hug or handshake at the Peace.  For the first time in our lives, we may now have a glimmer of understanding for what it was like for the Israelites wandering or for Jesus wrestling with his identity in the wilderness.  Before it was just a story, and now, as a community we understand the  quality , the feel in our bones, of what it means when we say  a very long time .  When we began...

We end the season of Epiphany each year with the story of the transfiguration.  At the heart of the story is an unveiling.  Revealing the fullness of one who is somehow both fully human and divine.  When the veil is lifted back, we gain a better understanding of who Jesus is and how his way of life can continue to inspire our own ongoing transformation.  We know Mark’s gospel was the first of the four canonical gospels to be written.  It is a brief and fast-paced read.   The author intends for us to take in every detail and moment.  The gospel begins by introducing us to John the Baptist, who by verse nine is baptizing Jesus in the Jordan.  In Mark’s version of the baptism, when Jesus comes up and out of the water,  he alone  witnesses something spectacular.   The heavens are torn apart and the Spirit descended on him like a dove, while a voice from heaven said,  just to him :   ” You are my Son, the Beloved...