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Showing posts from July, 2022

A Sermon on being comforted while facing division

  This sermon was first delivered on July 3rd, 2022. The text being interpreted is Isaiah 66:10-14 I once had an American History book from the late 1850s. I’m not sure where it is now… I moved a lot in the last ten years and somewhere along the way I’ve misplaced it… but for a student of history, it was a fascinating book… When a nation is less than 100 years old, any comprehensive history is going to be a lot more granular than when it is 250 years old, all due respect to our British friends with thousands of years to chronicle. I learned about highly influential people in the early history of this nation who I had never learned about, even in “advanced” US history classes. But probably the most fascinating part of this text was the closing chapter, where the authors wrote about the present state of the nation, on the cusp of the Civil War.  I’ll never forget the first time I read it.  These are people who knew well from studying the trajectories of past nations what th...

On Marriage

  This was going to be an essay on "Faith" but then I had a Twitter thread on Marriage go viral (at least by the standards of my account) so I decided to flesh things out a little more. If you're dropping in from that thread, welcome! Take a look around! I hope you find something that feeds you.   When my spouse and I were discerning if we wanted to marry, I was also discerning if I had a call to ordained ministry. During one of these conversations, I pulled out my Book of Common Prayer, in possibly one of the most Episcopalian moves of our entire courtship, and first opened up page 423, the first page in the Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage. There, it says:  "[Marriage] signifies to us the mystery of the union between Christ and his Church, and Holy Scripture commends it to be honored among all people. The union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind is intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adv...