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Advent 3
Year A – December 14, 2025 Lectionary readings:Isaiah 35:1-10James 5:7-10Matthew 11:2-11Psalm 146:4-9or Canticle 15 (the Magnificat, or Song of Mary) This icon type, Theotokos of the Sign, depicts the expectant Mary. Her posture is one of prayer, and while her son is still in her womb, we see him as God, arms extended in a gesture of
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Advent II
Year A—December 6, 2025 Readings:Isaiah 11:1-10Romans 15:4-13Matthew 3:1-12Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,and a branch shall grow out of his roots. So begins the reading from Isaiah this week. Christians have understood this passage in light of Jesus, who the Gospel writers cast as a literal descendent of David
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The First Sunday of Advent
Year A – November 30, 2025 Note: I am beginning a series of blogging on the Sunday Eucharistic lectionary—the Revised Common Lectionary as used in the Episcopal Church—paired with artwork. This project has its origins in bulletins I used to make for St. Andrew’s Church, Livonia, although I wrote much shorter reflections. Lectionary readings:Isaiah 2:1-5Romans
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Bearing Scars and Good News
Homily for the Feast of St. Luke (observed), Evensong, 10/19/2025Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit (detroitcathedral.org) This morning we observed yesterday’s feast of St. Luke, and we continue that observance this evening. St. Luke’s day has long been important in this cathedral—which is why we can move it to a Sunday—because of the medical institutions
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The Lord is risen indeed!
Alleluia! Something truly unprecedented has happened. God has become human: fully human and fully divine. I don’t know what that means, exactly. It’s unprecedented. Then, this God-man died. Men—well, people of all genders, and also all living things—die all the time. But God? It’s unprecedented. Now he’s back. And honestly? To me, the fact that
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The Sound 