Kings behaving badly: A Sermon for Proper 10, Year B

 

Are y’all already as tired of the presidential campaign as I am?

. It’s not just that our own governor has announced he’s a candidate for President; it seems like every day we hear about another Republican who has thrown his or her hat into the ring. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders has already visited Madison and the media are paying close attention to the horse race between him and Secretary Clinton. Apart from the entertainment value of Donald Trump’s outrageous statements, I expect that by next November we will be weary of it all, even while we have to gear up for the next cycle to begin in January of 2017. Continue reading

Lose your life, save your life, follow Jesus: A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent, 2015

I have been profoundly affected by the image I saw a couple of weeks ago of ISIS fighters about to execute 21 Coptic Christians. The scene was horrific in its staging; the victims on their knees, behind each one of them his executioner, with a sword at the throat. I have struggled to make sense of this and other horrific acts of religious violence over the last weeks and months, struggled to understand the interplay of religion and politics, the effects of twelve years of the global war on terror, struggled to make sense of the inhumanity of human beings. Continue reading