#easter 5a

Love and Conviction on The WayEaster 5A  |  Acts 7:55-60, John 14:1-14 A year ago in January, I was driving down to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, to a retreat center where I was attending a writing residency, and the weather was temperate, then cold and my car’s tires were acting up like they do when the temperature changes dramatically. It waits until I’m on the road a minute. The car’s…

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash [cropped] Navigating when we feel lostEaster 5A  |  John 14:1-14 I’m starting to get the theme here. It’s only taken forty years. Easter is about seeing what we don’t think we’re supposed to even be able to see. When I was a kid, I marveled at the crucifixion and then the resurrection. All the details of the Passion; even its gruesomeness. It was all so…

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash This is a going away text. Which is the main reason it is a favorite in funerals. Because Jesus is telling the disciples he is going away and he seeks to comfort them. It also has me, once again, startled by how many of our Easter readings don’t feel Eastery—or at least conform to ourexpectations of Easter. We talk now about the risen Christ, not about…

Photo by Lili Popper on Unsplash [cropped] For Sunday  Easter 5A Collect Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy…

A look at the gaps in the lectionary.This week: the gap between Easter 4 and 5The text: John 10:11 – 13:38 As we discussed last week, the context for this week’s gospel isn’t the resurrection, but the condemnation of Jesus. Which is really not what we think of during Easter. After last week’s passage at the beginning of John 10, the leadership condemns Jesus. Then he goes to Bethany, closer to…

Why do they kill Stephen?

Our lectionary jumps in at the very end of a two chapter story. A story about Stephen, our patron saint. After all the explanation of who he is, what he says, and why it makes the people angry enough to kill him, then they jump in. So let’s back up a little bit.

Easter 5A  |  Acts 7:55-60

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Don’t You Get It?

By The Rev’d Curtis Farr

Easter 4A

“I don’t get it.”

The child sits there quite sullenly, math homework strewn across the kitchen table.

“Yes you do,” Mom says encouragingly. Remember when we laid out thirty straws, and how you put them in groups of ten, and when there were three groups of ten there were thirty straws? Which means that three times ten equals what?”

“Thirty?”

We’ve all been here,…

By The Rev’d Curtis Farr

Easter 4A

“I don’t get it.”

The child sits there quite sullenly, math homework strewn across the kitchen table.

“Yes you do,” Mom says encouragingly. Remember when we laid out thirty straws, and how you put them in groups of ten, and when there were three groups of ten there were thirty straws? Which means that three times ten equals what?”

“Thirty?”

We’ve all been here,…