Feeling Dried Up

March 29, 2020

“Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” The cry of the people, heard by God, shared with the prophet Ezekiel, rhymes well with our experience these days. While Facebook Live and Instagram, Zoom and phone calls are keeping us connected, even letting us see one another’s […]

“Social Distancing”

March 15, 2020

This week, more than usual, I have been reading the news, keeping updated on the quickly evolving developments of the spread of the corona virus and COVID-19. While I have been preparing with our elders for weeks, this week saw the situation escalate with a dizzying speed. The response from The President has been […]

Righteous Gentiles: Jethro

March 8, 2020

My first experience with interfaith work came while I was preparing to spend a month in the State of Israel and Occupied Palestine. It was my first semester of Seminary. Our Professor, a Jewish Episcopalian, had prepared us well. She was clear with us that proselytizing was a non-starter, that our job in these […]

Righteous Gentiles: Bat-Paroh

March 1, 2020

“You know that this is the least religious school in the nation, right?” I was a freshman at Lewis & Clark College, founded by Presbyterians, with its beautiful circular chapel, designed to look like a Native American North West Tribe hat, with totem poles representing the four Gospels. My advisor and I were preparing the […]

Stay Salty

February 16, 2020

One of the many privileges of being a Pastor is that I get to hang out and work with leaders from other faith traditions. Rabbi Ariana Katz, the leader of Hinenu, a social justice Shtibel here in Baltimore, is one of my new interfaith, LGBTQ+ friends. I sat down with Rabbi Ariana at R. […]

Finding Ourselves Blessed

February 9, 2020

The challenge and the gift of our religious tradition is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and all your strength,” and to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” What a simple, clean-cut, neat and tidy guide to life. The only problem is, how many […]

Actually Good News

January 26, 2020

Somehow, we each ended up here, sitting in a church. I love to ask folks “You could be anywhere on Sunday Mornings. You could be reading The New York Times and enjoying a leisurely brunch. Why Church?” It’s an honest question, one that usually gets pretty interesting answers. What is it that we are […]

The Gift of Elders

January 19, 2020

I want you to know that I’m not comparing myself to Moses from this story from Scripture this morning. First off, I hope I don’t complain anywhere near as much as he did about his people. I actually brag about how lucky I am to serve alongside all of you, and many of my fellow […]

Our Surprising Part

January 12, 2020

Whatever it was that John was expecting, it wasn’t this. John’s been out in the wilderness for a while by now, but nothing quite prepares him for when Jesus shows up. John is one of those characters I wish more children’s plush toys and coloring pages were made to depict. Could you imagine that play […]

Gift of the Magi

January 5, 2020

The first time I heard the Muslim call to prayer was at sunset. My seminary classmates and I were staying at Tantur, an ecumenical retreat and study center just south of Jerusalem, a few miles from the boarder wall with the Palestinian Territories, next to Bethlehem. We were on the roof of our dorm, having […]