[RCL] Baruch 5:1-9 or Malachi 3:1-4; Canticle 4 or 16; Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6 There’s a method of calling to a crowd and catching its attention in which a speaker says, “If you can hear the sound of my voice, clap once.” Usually, in a gathered group, only a few closest to the speaker hear…

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John…

I’m reading a book right now by a person who really irritates me. I’m not sure that is the right description. She bothers me; she gets under my skin; she makes me cringe. I’m actually surprised that I’m even reading the book. I’ve never met her but I saw her at a conference once. I…

Have you ever thought to yourself, “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be”? Maybe it was the latest report of rockets falling in Israel. Maybe it was images of the security fence along the West Bank. Maybe it was a report on dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay. Maybe it was the story of…

The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. What MapQuest had indicated was a real road was, in fact, a road under construction. He should have known, the man sighed to himself. When he had turned onto the road and left the main highway,…

“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.” – Luke 1:76 Imagine for a moment a world and society in which our worth and wages were not determined by our work but rather by an entirely different standard. Suppose we…

In the third year of the presidential term of George W. Bush, when Ariel Sharon is the Prime Minister of Israel and Yasser Arafat is the President of the Palestinian Authority and Frank T. Griswold is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States and Rowan Williams is the Archbishop of Canterbury,…

A person quoting from the tradition of Isaiah delivers the majestic passages in today’s Gospel. The message breaks into history, quoted by a preacher, John the Baptist, who is himself «one crying in the wilderness.» How does it sound to you? Is it a message of hope? Does the phrase, Every valley shall be filled,…

The lessons and Gospel for today all reflect the totally unique character of our faith among human religions in the way in which it is constantly tied to specific times and places and people in history. Here as we begin the church year, we not only have Baruch’s prophecy of a very concrete return to…