Still thinking about these words from the Rev. Clementa Pinckney’s funeral, by the Right Reverend John Richard Bryan:

Only God snatches victory out of the jaws of seeming defeat, only God, majors in following Good Friday with Easter Sunday.

Only God is able to take you through the wilderness in order to lead you into the Promised Land.  Continue reading →

It’s such a darned big book, and it’s been around for so long–isn’t it just kind of tired?  What else could be in it that’s useful?  It’s so full of misogyny and slavery and oppression and violence; why do we even bother anymore?  Can’t God reveal God’s self better to me just by my own quiet contemplation?

Indeed.  Let’s toss the Bible in the wood chipper.

It’s best used as mulch anyhow. Continue reading →

We lift up our broken hearts this morning in sure and certain hope of the resurrection, in victory over evil and darkness, and in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Let us pray to our God and Savior.

Almighty Father, on this Father’s Day, we lift up to you all fathers, especially those who are grappling with what to say to their children, how to protect their families, and how to keep themselves alive in this world at this time.

We lift up to you the leaders of our nation, especially Barack Obama, and the leaders of our state, especially Nikki Haley; cleanse our nation and state from hatred and racism, bring us into the new light of your kingdom.

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples and races of the earth,

and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and those who are near:

Take into your loving arms the bereaved of Charleston, and especially Emmanuel AME Church, granting them peace and comfort that only you can give.

Pour out your spirit upon all flesh and hasten, O Lord, the coming of your kingdom, that your church throughout the whole world may enjoy communion with you and with each other, bringing all of creation into your good purposes.

Protect and embolden those frightened to attend church or to go to work. There is a different gold star pinned to many backs today, God, and it is dark skin.

Gathering below the cross this morning/evening as your sons and daughters, we acknowledge our guilt and sin, our complicity in racism, our hardness of heart and our clinging to darkness and evil rather than your light.

We commend to your mercy all who have died, especially DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Simmons Sr., Sharonda Singleton, and Myra Thompson;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(composed for Trinity Cathedral’s Keenan Chapel service)

 
Southern pines 

via

As truly as God is our Father, so just as truly is he our Mother.
In our Father, God Almighty, we have our being;
In our merciful Mother we are remade and restored.
Our fragmented lives are knit together.
And by giving and yielding ourselves, through grace,
To the Holy Spirit we are made whole.
It is I, the strength and goodness of Fatherhood.
It is I, the wisdom of Motherhood.
It is I, the light and grace of holy love.
It is I, the Trinity.
I am the sovereign goodness in all things.
It is I who teach you to love.
It is I who teach you to desire.
It is I who am the reward of all true desiring.
All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. Amen.

As offered (CLICK to listen) (2nd track) by the Trinity Cathedral Adult Choir, 10 May, 2015

What does it mean that God teaches us to desire, and is indeed the reward of all true desiring?