“Note that in today’s Gospel, Joseph does not speak a single word. Joseph acts with quiet yet life-saving integrity. Perhaps Joseph has no words because, as Abraham Joshua Heschel says, ‘There is not enough grandeur in our souls to be able to unravel in words the knot of time and eternity.'”
The destruction of evil can become more than a mere distraction. The destruction of evil can become an idol. When we stare too long at the evil being done, we might unconsciously become so obsessed with destruction, that we forget God’s Present Continuous creation.
“To turn away from worshipping the death-dealing idol of the Second Amendment and its anti-liturgies of gun violence requires a complete re-evaluation of our values. To turn away from cracked cisterns that hold no water, and to turn back to God, the fountain of living water, requires a complete change of heart. “
“What languages and cultures saturate your daily life? Who made your shoes? Who picked your coffee beans? What are the untold origins of the music you love? Racist, xenophobic, Christian Nationalism will fail. God loves diversity.”
“Bayard Rustin, Audre Lorde, Langston Hughes, Pauli Murray, Gloria Anzaldúa, Alvin Ailey, and James Baldwin straddled treacherous breaches between lowliness and magnificence; mercy and might; exaltations and put-downs.”
“The more we try to make exclusive distinctions between us and them, the more God makes differing bodies bridges between them and us. Holy Baptism and Holy Communion are the sacramental sites of God’s bridge-building in our very bodies.”
“This Great Vigil of Easter removes Empire’s fears, erasures, and stone-cold-heartedness and replaces God’s holy, loving, and liberating spirit within our hearts of flesh. Christ’s love fills us so fully that we too come out of Empire’s tombs.”
Rejoice, Mother Church: and come together all of you that love her: sing with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of God’s consolation. Amen.
Tho…
“The majority of churches today don’t look like the ‘whole family of God.’ As Episcopalians, how can we become more like the communion of saints we say we believe in?”
I don’t know what you did to cope, but I retreated into old school love songs to survive last week. Many of us feel betrayed. Betrayed across lines of gender, race, and class. Betrayal hurts both the victims and the perpetrators. I cope with this pain of betrayal by overindulging in old school love songs.
Copyright © 2020 St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church
St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church
[email protected]
651.228.1172
60 Kent St N, St. Paul, MN 55102-2232
Map & Directions
