A vision of plowshares

This weeks lectionary brought us the prophet Micah's vision of a time when we would learn war no longer. There are those who fear that this is naive and they may be right but Easter calls us to hope and work for a better way - a way of peace and love.

In the sermon, I told the story of 15 year old Ava Lowry from Alabama who started the website Peace Takes Courage and has created what she calls animations - montages of images of war over incongruous music like Louis Armstrongs Wonderful World or Yes, Jesus loves me. Visit Peace Takes Courage.

Blessed Easter!!

Alleluia!

As you might imagine, Holy Week and Easter are an intense time for clergy. I needed to take a serious break after a full Easter weekend, complete with a house full of family. Now that I'm back among the open-eyed, here are the sermons from Easter weekend; the Easter Vigil and Easter morning.

The congregation gave me the gift of a day at Burke Williams Spa which I scheduled for the Wednesday before Easter - talk about being spoiled! It is now my new favorite place. Between the herbal wrap, massage, facial, pedicure and manicure, the Vicar was ready for Easter, head to toe! I wonder if the congregation wants to make this an Easter tradition?

A Day of Consequences

Palm Sunday - the color is red for the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a day that begins in triumph and ends in despair. Judas is probably receiving lots of attention in pulpits around the world and it was no different at Faith. However you understand Judas, he is a reminder of the consequences of our actions. Read the sermon here.

The Vicar encourages you to engage the rest of Holy Week. Easter will have particular ring to it if you have experienced Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

Caught in our own web

For the last four Sundays I have read from Friedman's Fables - a group of stories by Rabbi Edwin Friedman that illustrate how we relate to one another and ourselves. This Sunday's fable was called Caught in Her Own Web all about a spider named Ms. Muffet who unexpectedly spun a perfect web. It was complete symmetrical and even and, well, perfect. She became so obsessed with its perfection that she freed all of the bugs that it snared until she starved to death. The short sermon that followed is here.

Friedman's Fables is a wonderful modern Aesop. I recommend it.