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The Healing of Women

The Healing of Women Pentecost 5 Mark 5:21-43When Jesus heals, he seeks to make us whole:he healed the flow of blood the woman borefor twelve long years, but also healed her soul.Her shame was lifted, she need hide no more.Did Jesus feel his power go out to allthose women judged unclean who hide in fearandContinue reading “The Healing of Women”

Pitching Our Tents: Poetry of Hospitality

(Barbara Messner has a poem in this book, and would like to encourage people to read it and to contribute to the project it supports. The following is a description prepared by the editors:)“Pitching Our Tents: Poetry of Hospitality is a chapbook edited by Maren Tirabassi and Maria Mankin in support of Peace Cathedral inContinue reading “Pitching Our Tents: Poetry of Hospitality”

Anxiety

Anxiety Anxiety hops like a toad in my guts: it swims in my stomach and climbs up my throat. Like seagulls, it splatters my hopes with its buts; it circles my living like wall or like moat. But if it’s like toad, should I kiss it and see if it will turn royal and makeContinue reading “Anxiety”

Who then is this?

Who then is this? Pentecost 4, Mark 4:35-41 “Who then is this?” we ask. Do winds and waves obey a being set apart with words we dare not say, not even when we pray? “Who then is this?” we ask. A man so spent and worn he cannot help but sleep, although the skies areContinue reading “Who then is this?”

Changing our Point of View

Changing our Point of View Pentecost 3, 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17, Mark 4:26-34 For anyone in Christ a new creation calls in love that urges change: to walk by faith not sight, to live not for ourselves but with the risen Christ, to lift our blinkered gaze from human points of view.Continue reading “Changing our Point of View”

Waking Up in Winter

Waking Up in Winter Well cocooned in winter blankets I cling on to skirts of sleeping, while uneasy dreams are shredded, gone before I grasp at meaning. Let me stay a little, hidden in this cozy muffled stillness, pulling up a layered muting over morning sounds and greyness. I admit that I’m delaying facing coldContinue reading “Waking Up in Winter”

Home not Home

Home not Home Pentecost 2, Mark 3:19b-35 Then he went home; perhaps he hoped for quiet time with family, affection free of fresh demands, a sheltered space of privacy that might restore his energy. But crowds came, urgent in their need, and sought him out. The streets were lined, and villagers, resentful, said: “Young carpenterContinue reading “Home not Home”

Nicodemus at Night

Nicodemus at Night Trinity Sunday John 3:1-17 Then Nicodemus came by night – a man of law-trained, literal mind replete with Scripture he could cite. He knew his peers would be unkind, so sure of ways they thought were right, but he must see what he would find. Perhaps this Jesus came from God –Continue reading “Nicodemus at Night”

Pentecost

Pentecost Acts 2:1-21 (written 2005) The flames still strike, though the walls we hide behind for fear of fear and fire are more opaque, the cracks papered over with copies of The Times, The Age, The Advertiser, and Sunday Mail. It’s hard to speak an unknown tongue in such a spate of foreign news. TheContinue reading “Pentecost”

From Autumn to Winter

From Autumn to Winter In middle May the seasons shift and winter looms in one bleak week while leaves still fall and twirl and drift. The south wind chills my wrinkled cheek and stirs the leaves to swirl and lift. I stand to watch them sifting down: some join the scatter on the ground, theirContinue reading “From Autumn to Winter”