As is often the case, what is not included in our lessons may be of utmost importance in our hearing what is going on in these lessons. For instance, in Acts, a lame man has been healed, and Peter and John have been hauled before some sort of ecclesiastical court to explain why the lame…

This is the story of an Easter people on a Sunday morning, welcoming a visitor who steps in off the street. “Hi! My name is Joe” his name tag reads as he stands in the parish hall at coffee hour. He looks a little out of sorts, standing by the coffee urn, a sugared donut…

Today is “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Many of us associate this day with a particular painting, often rendered in stained glass, the familiar one with the rich, dark tones. It features Jesus as the gentle shepherd, carrying home a wayward sheep. Many children who grow up in the church carry this image of the Christ who…

Today we celebrate Jesus the Good Shepherd–and we also celebrate Mother’s Day. For me, there is an interesting coming together of images on this day: Jesus, the mother of us all, and our earthly mothers as good shepherds. Both Jesus and our mothers are anxious that we follow their lead, and I celebrate the ways…

Today is Earth Day. [Christ is Risen! Still. Easter is such a momentous joy that it takes us fifty day to unwrap and enjoy its gift. Besides being the fourth Sunday in Easter, today we also prepare to celebrate Earth Day tomorrow. Our readings point to this Easter joy, but also to the gift that…

Lots of Good Shepherd readings this Sunday — Ezekiel, the 23rd Psalm, 1 John — if we can count “children of God” as sheep, and the Gospel according to John. The analogy of God as Shepherd and human beings as sheep is one of the most persistent in scripture, both Old and New Testaments; yet…