miltybc

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triptych

I know the Revised Common Lectionary doesn’t point to the story of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness until the first Sunday in Lent, but it seems to have more layers when it is taken in context between Jesus’ baptism and his sermon in Nazareth where they deemed him unrecognizable. I’ll find something else for Lent. _____________________ The first time I heard the word “Trip Tik” was back in the…

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dropping our guard

I found some new things (well, new to me) as I read the story of Jesus’ baptism this year. Here’s what I said in my sermon. ___________________________ When it comes to Bible stories, particularly the ones we have heard during Advent and Christmas, and now going into the season after Epiphany, we often carry a sense of familiarity, as though we really understand the details of the story. We…

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word choice

word choice another word for change is loss another word for loss is absence another word for absence is space another word for space is distance another word for distance is apart another word for apart is away another word for away is beyond another word for beyond is without another word for without is grief another word for grief is change Peace, Milton

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tidings

tidings Christmastide has ebbed and the waves of wonder that crashed against the sea walls of our hearts are slipping away trees go down lights go dim and it dawns on me tides don’t stop they come in one after another waves break just like hearts one after another we come and go oh tidings of comfort and joy Peace, Milton

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star struck

The magi show up every January and those of us who step into pulpits are expected to talk about them. Here’s where their journey took me this year. ____________________________ The magi are among my favorite characters that show up in the story of Jesus’ birth because we don’t really know who they were. Some translators call them wise ones; others, scholars. The word magi is just a…

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route map

route map the four-gate airport in New Haven (travel-sized, my friend Mandy says) announced new routes to five cities and it made me wonder how many new connections I have made lately or what it means to be an airport even if it is only metaphorically a place of connection with lines arcing across the map to show all the people who offer landing space in this beautiful temporary where we measure…

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epiphany

epiphany I’m working on a sermon about the saddled sages who were sane enough to follow stars and wise enough to ignore the king’s directions and find another way home I used to see a desert sky as their background but recent years have given me the view of rioters climbing Herod’s walls as the wise ones slipped out the back the smell of violence didn’t match their gifts so they trusted…

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trash talking

trash talking after staying up late to watch the ball drop and listen to musicians I didn’t recognize we did not need fireworks lightning lit up the sky and the rain fell like it was washing the world so far this morning I have fed pups drank coffee done Wordle (NERVE) and written these words it is the first day of the last year in the first quarter of the latest century on the calendar and it is…

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growing

This week sermon looked at two texts, one from Luke and one from Colossians. Alongside of the reality that we don’t know much about how Jesus grew up is the picture of who he grew up to be: who he became. How do we continue to become, to grow? ___________________ One of the realizations that repeats itself for me during Christmastide is that we only know a small slice of Jesus’ life. The gospels…

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advent journal: role call

role call were I to place myself in the story I think I would choose to be a shepherd who did not have to prepare a thing they simply abided watching sheep sleep until the angel choir burst into star song and sent them sprinting towards Bethlehem and then they went back to abiding that sounds like a good Christmas Peace, Milton

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advent journal: put the heart in

The last Sunday in Advent is always a hard one for me because it’s hard to find something fresh to say, which is why I bounced off of a passage from Philippians today. Here’s where it took me. ____________________ I’m going to take a risk with you this morning: I’m going to start two sermons in a row talking about Christmas movies. Okay, so it’s not that big a risk. One of the consistent things…

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advent journal: solstice sandwich

solstice sandwich today was the thinnest of daylight sandwiches the shortest distance between two darknesses last night it began to snow but it was another thinness icing across the landscape an inconsequential covering tonight is the thickest of nighttime sandwiches the longest distance between two daylights tomorrow the sun will rise and it will be another thinness lighting up the landscape an…

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advent journal: chowder head

chowder head I think coincidence and soup are synonyms both words mean to fall together it started with bacon that’s when I knew we were having chowder for supper I found potatoes and chopped clams even as I grabbed items as though I was gathering props for improv giving myself options I couldn’t see yet the clam to spud ratio was unbalanced so I reached for the sweet potatoes and let the…

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advent journal: live and learn

live and learn “the only way to learn is to live” the words came from a fictional librarian who lives in a story about consequences an old word that means what comes next after whatever we said or did or didn’t do which we can’t see until we live through it and that makes me want to flip the thing the only way to live is to learn to learn means to be cultivated and to live is to continue or…

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advent journal: repeat the sounding joy

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is watching—no, rewatching—movies. We have several that we need to see at some point during the holidays to make the season feel complete: “It’s a Wonderful Life,” of course; “Christmas in Connecticut” with Barbara Stanwyck; “The Preacher’s Wife” with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston; Bill Murray’s take on “A Christmas Carol,” which is called…

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advent journal: coffee shop duet

coffee shop duet what I saw first was her solitude as she sat on the bar stool matching the expression of the coffee shop’s blank wall but when he entered she turned and so did the light around her they greeted like good friends talking as they shuffled coats to make room for themselves he took the stool next to her which left him much taller than she but she widened the frame by moving to a…

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advent journal: I could hear the rain

I could hear rain in mid-December days die incrementally losing light almost from the crack of dawn suffocate them with a blanket of clouds and the only light that lives is artificial still light is not life or so I was reminded when I realized I could hear the rain not just the storm but the tap dance of drops on the patio that had been silent for so many showers however dark the day I could…