Ramblin' Rows

A sermon preached on Sunday, November 30, 2025: Advent I at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Wilton, Connecticut. You can listen to the audio here. There were “props” used, adapted from the Godly Play lesson “The Circle of the Church Year.” The lectionary readings: Isaiah 2:1-5, Romans 13:11-14, and Matthew 24:36-44 God of awakening, you call us to rise from sleep and embrace this moment. Wake…

This Lent I have attempted to stay away from news, social media, and engaging in public lamentation about the state of affairs in the United States. I haven’t always been successful. It continues to be a desert time for me as I ask, “How long, O Lord?” as civil rights, human rights, all sorts of rights seem to be bargaining chips for a price. The phrase “stones cry out” has also come to mind at…

I have just been re-introduced to Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), an Indian poet, Nobel Laureate, and “dreamer of dreams” as he once called himself. I first learned of him twenty years ago when I took a course on mysticism, studying the mystics of Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, and Islamic traditions. My rediscovering of him has come from John Philip Newell’s The Great Search: Turning to…

So often during times of tragedy, such as in the aftermath of gun violence or natural disaster, people respond with the comment, “My thoughts and prayers are with you.” Thoughts and prayers are important, but so is action. Yet we often feel helpless in such times and do not know what kind of action we can take that makes a difference. I would contend that prayer and small steps of action can lead…

Yesterday’s gospel was the same for every first Sunday of Lent. Jesus is “sent” into the wilderness following his baptism where he is tempted by the devil. I feel like I’ve been in the wilderness since Election Day in November, being cast out into a harsh land void of compassion, with every day seeming to suck out more decency and love. The devil is among us, withholding bread from the needy and…

We enter the Season of Lent today with the mark of the cross on our foreheads. It has been 59 days of Epiphany in which I have posted reflections I’ve tagged as “go another way.” It has been a hard season; it has been difficult to find the light of the star that shone over Bethlehem that led the magi to the Christ child. We have travelled to Egypt with him and in some ways become refugees in our…

In a time of desolation do not make a life-changing decision and do not go back on a decision made during a time of consolation. Remember the times of consolation. ignatius of loyola hold yourself together and pull yourself apart by Pádraig Ó Tuama Remember that this has passed beforeand that there will be more daysof plenty . . . eventually.Pay attention to your feelingskeep those feelings…

Gaslighting is a psychological manipulation tactic that involves convincing someone that their reality is untrue. It’s a form of emotional abuse that can cause people to question their own feelings, instincts, and sanity. I don’t remember ever hearing the term until the early 2010s as fake news was a “thing” and false narratives were put forth by peole of power. It was a form of domestic…

Recenty Bishop Marianne Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington posted a “reel” on her Facebook page. You may remember her as the bishop who gave the sermon at Washington National Cathedral on January 21st that drew the wrath of Trump. It was a sermon about mercy. In addition to praise, she drew criticism and death threats. And she took a step back from social media and appeared to “stay…

I follow Bishop Steven Charleston on Facebook where he posts a reflection or prayer every day. Saturdays are days he asks for the “community” that follows him to request prayers. He is gentle, calm, and always takes the high ground. There were two posts this past week that really struck me: Pace yourself, for the journey will be long, and the terrain unpredictable. Spirituality is not a spring,…

by Wendell Berry It is hard to have hope. It is harder as you grow old,for hope must not depend on feeling goodand there is the dream of loneliness at absolute midnight.You also have withdrawn belief in the present realityof the future, which surely will surprise us,and hope is harder when it cannot come by predictionany more than by wishing. But stop dithering.The young ask the old to hope.…

In the 1870s, Irish farmers faced an agricultural crisis that threatened to result in a repeat of the terrible famine and mass evictions of the 1840s. Anticipating financial ruin, they formed a Land League to campaign against the rent increases and evictions landlords were imposing as a result of the crisis. When retired British army captain Charles Boycott, acting as an agent for an absentee…

Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a representative of non-metropolitan French literature. Born in Algeria, his experiences there in the 1930s were dominating influences in his thought and work. Of semi-proletarian parents, he was drawn to intellectual circles that had a strong revolutionary tendencies, with a deep interest in philosophy. He came to France at the age of twenty-five (1938) and joined…

This list (with links) comes from ASO Communications, founded by Anat Shenker-Osorio, who has led research for new messaging on issues ranging from freedom to join together in union to clean energy and from immigrant rights to reforming criminal justice. She is the author of Don’t Buy It: The Trouble with Talking Nonsense About the Economy and host of the podcast Words to Win By. A so-called…

The Epistle of James is a general “epistle” (letter) and one of the 21 letters in the New Testament. It was written originally in Koine Greek, and in the first line of the letter the author is identified as “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ” who is writing to “the twelve tribes scattered abroad.” Traditionally, it is attributed to James the brother of Jesus (James the Just)…