Together with the sense of the Holy, the experience of Maundy Thursday affords us the most profound awareness of the role of change in our lives as well as the meaning of remembrance. Both are interwoven with the events of the saddest day of the church year. The arrest, stealthy court proceedings and torture of…

Take off your shoes! Take—off—your—shoes. No, not literally—figuratively. But think about what that would look like in this place—in this holy space we worship in. All those feet—our feet. Many of us would feel odd—all dressed up, but without shoes. Others might feel freed. Little children, for example, love to take off their shoes and…

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” In Jewish culture, a child asks this question to begin the celebration of the Feast of the Passover, as Jews throughout the world retell the story of the Exodus and celebrate the escape of their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. It is a time when the…

Imagine a scene in an old black-and-white movie. At first, all you see on the screen are feet — old feet, middle-aged feet, children’s feet — caked with mud and marked by oozing sores from a long forced march, from slipping and staggering in the ankle-deep muck because these feet seem to be carrying more…

Let me tell you about something that happened recently in an affluent community in North Carolina. The story comes originally from Irving R. Stubbs, a consultant in organizational leadership. There’s a big congregation in this community, the sort that’s called a “high steeple” church. The lay leaders of that church are also the power brokers…

In churches throughout the world people will gather today to remember. Memory is something we seldom invoke in our culture. We are occupied with the now and the not yet, but we are viewed with suspicion if we recall the past. Yet, the lesson from Exodus recalls the foundation of our Eucharistic life, the Passover…

Somewhere out in the wilds of Cyberspace there is a website called “Ask the Oracle.” Those who stumble upon it as they surf the Internet are invited to have their fortune told. All that is required is to mentally focus on a yes/no question about the future. When the inquirer feels ready, she clicks on…

When we enter into the Gospels, how often we find ourselves at table sharing a meal. When we come to this place, St Mark’s, how often we find ourselves sharing food and drink — whether in the Eucharist, at coffee hour, or at any of the myriad “food events” of our common life. Table fellowship…

Have you a will? Have you taken time to think about who is important in your life, and how you would like to thank them, or be remembered? Have you decided what your treasures are, and how those treasures will be divided – or have you tried to figure out how “to take it with…