miltybc

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imago d.e.i.

imago d.e.i. can we talk numbers? 91 different kinds of antelope 11,000 different birds 50,000 spiders 34,000 snakes 30,000 fish and too many worms to try and count not to mention us we humans are one of 522 different primates but perhaps the only ones who see themselves as the image of God which begs for a reminder of the first truth of theology there is a God and it’s not me better to say an…

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catch me

I’m working my way through Luke so I am a little off from the lectionary, but this turned out to be the right story for this past week and, perhaps, for the days to come. _________________________ In my days as a high school English teacher, one of the books I loved to read with my students was Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. I won’t say that all the ninth graders in my classes…

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last days

last days no matter who has been alive or what has happened in history people have been convinced they were the last act of humanity because things were so bad who could imagine a future? no matter when they were alive they represented a fraction of all who lived before them our 8 billion doesn’t stack up against 109 billion ancestors who thought they were done for no matter how we tell our…

[miltybc]

have mercy

Guy Clark has a song that says, “Some days you write the song. Some days the song writes you.” Some days that’s true with sermons as well. _________________________ A crowd gathers for worship in a traditional setting. A preacher preaches a sermon, initially embraced by everyone. But then, at the end, the preacher reminds the crowd that the point of that “Good News” is mercy and compassion; not…

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stocked up

stocked up when I looked up the roots of the word stock it said “supply for future use; collective wealth” and reminded me that it was four hundred years before it became a kitchen word still I think about the pot simmering all day filled with a collective wealth of bones and root vegetables as common tap water turns into a supply of sustenance and flavor that awaits the call of a collective…

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ice

ice it has been days since the temperature has topped the freezing mark the snow that fell a few days ago has crusted into a crunchy stability if you have to go out but ice is not your friend whether the white ridges or the translucent layer disguised as ashphalt it will take you down maybe that’s what they had in mind when they chose it as the acronym for the force that knocks down doors and…

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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…