God in Community

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, the day when the readings that we hear and the prayers that we pray all proclaim that God is both three and one. It’s a funny thing to celebrate a doctrine, and I cannot promise you that I have made sense of the mystery of God’s three-ness (definitely check out this hilarious cartoon about St. Patrick's famed teaching analogies on the Trinity).

But while I have not yet fully grasped the mystery of the Trinity (and I doubt I ever will), there is one aspect of this crazy

Love's Response

The gospel story we hear this morning takes place a few weeks after the resurrection of Jesus.  According to John, Peter and a few of the other disciples have left Jerusalem and gone back home, back to their old stomping grounds by the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  They were fishermen before they met Jesus, so when the rollercoaster of following Jesus is over, it should come as little surprise that they go back to what they knew before.  Back to the old life.  Back to being fishermen.  Back to what they

The Good News

For the past several weeks Dante and I have been meeting with the teenage candidates for Confirmation to discuss fundamental aspects of our life and beliefs as Christian people. The bulk of our conversations so far have centered around the Baptismal Covenant, that foundational set of promises we make when we are baptized into Christ's death and resurrection and sealed by the Holy Spirit.  After all, Confirmation is, essentially, an affirmation of the Baptismal Covenant, and a commitment to live by its vision of

Easter at St. Peter's

Easter Day at St. Peter's happens in three parts.

First, we light the new fire and celebrate the Great Vigil at 6:00 a.m. This is the most ancient and beautiful of all Christian liturgies, and well worth the early wake up call.

At 9:15 a.m. we have activities for children of all ages.  First, kids are invited to help dig up the Alleluia, which we symbolically buried on Shrove Tuesday. At 9:30 there is an Easter egg hunt on the lawn, followed by flowering of the cross in the Parish Hall.

Then, at 10:15

Extravagant Discipleship vs Superficial Relgiosity

The gospel lesson today tells the story of a woman named Mary who opens a large jar of expensive perfume and pours it on Jesus' feet, then wipes his feet with her hair.  To understand why it’s such a remarkable story, and why it is appointed as the last gospel before Holy Week, it helps to unpack the story’s details.  First of all: the jar of perfume.  The story says that Mary pours out a pound of perfume from a jar.  Picture a jar about the size of a pint of strawberries,

Spiritual Life Survey

Your spiritual growth is of central importance to our church. Whether you’re just starting to explore the Christian faith, or you’re a long-time Christian disciple, we want to do everything we can to help you on your spiritual journey.  In order to discern our spiritual health and vitality, both as individuals and as a community, you are asked to participate in something called the Renewal Works Spiritual Life Survey. Hopefully you received the mailing with information about this process.  Copies of the

Holy Week at St. Peter's

In the liturgies of Holy Week we encounter again the full story of our salvation. For us who put our hope in the lordship of Jesus Christ, it is the culmination of everything we believe. In each service we walk a bit further with Jesus as he journeys toward the cross. We remember the Last Supper, tenderly wash one another’s feet, go again to Gethsemane, recall our own denials and betrayals, and, ultimately, stand alongside the cross of Christ as he gives everything so we may have life. This year you

Did They Deserve It?

I'm not going to be preaching on the gospel appointed for this Sunday, but I thought I'd wrestle with it here, in hopes that it helps make some sense of a difficult passage. The story features Jesus talking with some religious leaders, who come to tell him some tragic news: apparently Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, had executed some Galileans (i.e. people from Jesus' home region, near the Sea of Galilee) and mixed their blood with their sacrifices. This made it doubly tragic: the deaths themselves,

Why Lent?

Years ago, even within my lifetime, Lenten observances were commonplace. Most Christians chose to observe Lent by fasting from meat or alcohol or sweets; to rededicate themselves to a daily pattern of prayer; and to read the Bible with more regularity. If you were Roman Catholic, perhaps Lent was also the time when you made a rare visit to a confessional. 

But these days we can’t assume knowledge about the season, or widespread observance of traditional seasonal disciplines. The truth is that most folks haven’t