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“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.”
“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…
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.
The waters of baptism and fire of the Holy Spirit frighten us because they are the birth pangs of new life. New life in kinship with the very people we have comfortably curated our lives to ignore, to forget, and to betray. Renewing our Baptismal Covenant reminds us that baptism into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus requires us to keep our word. To keep our promises to love God and to love all our neighbors as ourselves, in thought, word, and deed.
Do you find yourself in that land of deep darkness? Do you know someone working, watching, or weeping through grief, betrayal, or terror? Tonight, God’s Word and Sacrament remind us, that God became as human as you and me. So that in sanctifying our humanity we can shine God’s light into one another’s lives. Your presence in another person’s life is sacred. You are enough. You are loved.
“We feel ashamed to tell the truth about the lowest nadirs in life when we are overwhelmed, exhausted, and depressed. Yet, telling the truth – the good, the bad, and the ugly – sets us all free.”
“Getting out of our own ego’s way, to graciously receive a prophet’s truthful and disruptive word from God, takes courage. Courage to surrender to God’s will. Herod was incapable of surrendering to God’s will to love. The courage it takes to listen, accept, and surrender to a prophet’s divine words is sorely lacking today. Herods are everywhere.”
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