• This thing has feathers. (pinned post)

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    Yeah, yeah, I misquoted Dickinson. (She wrote, “Hope is the thing with feathers,” not “Hope’s the thing…” But this is a meme I made a while back that isn’t really a meme because it’s not meming, but it does seem, unfortunately, to be evergreen: Feel free to use it if you like, though.

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  • A hill I would probably die on

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    Did God abandon Jesus on the cross? My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? This saying of Jesus on the cross is referred to as his “cry of dereliction.” Dereliction, of course, means abandonment. Many Christians rightly find deep consolation in this: Jesus felt God-forsaken, as we often do. Therefore, he understands this…

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  • Some unpolished thoughts on Maundy Thursday

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    Ideally, I’d have written this post yesterday and posted it early today; but I’m late. On the plus side, I can share what I heard in tonight’s gospel lection while I was at church. Here’s the part that struck me: And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands,…

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  • Whose is the kingdom, the power, and the glory?

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    Holy Week is here again: that annual liturgical reminder of the horrors humans are capable of. We tame it—make it about the provision of a meek and mute divine sacrificial victim to atone for our personal sins. It’s such a familiar story. Our hymnals automatically flip themselves open to “All glory, laud, and honor” and…

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  • I disagree with myself ALL THE TIME.

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    In grad school, I attended an inter-religious consortium of seminaries and institutes. One term while taking a class over at the Unitarian Universalist seminary, I recall telling a UU classmate that I am a “Trinitarian Universalist.” That might well be a fancy way to say “Episcopalian,” although I doubt it. Our shared beliefs don’t usually…

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  • Squirrels!

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    Two poems about those adorable pests So, I have a hole in my roof. My 101-year-old Detroit home has one of those very typical additions, a kitchen nook with a room above it. On the second floor, that creates a room off the bedroom I use as my office. It’s a nice, sunny room where…

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