At their best, Love, Power, and Justice flow together… "Power without Love is reckless and abusive Love without Power is sentimental and anemic Power at its best is Love implementing the demands of Justice Justice at its best is Power correcting...
leaves last a season lichens linger centuries each has a timeline
hornets once hidden now brought to autumn light glad for tall trees
swish and flick sending sparks across the woods nature’s magic wand
plink-patter-pop of a billion seed bombs dropping field of falling
one point perspective sees the vanishing point ignores the splendor
stone-eating lichen turns bridge to soil by degrees patient composter
Autumn light streams through golden panes giving new life to old grain
keeping bees happy when others have gone to seed montauk daisies
three vines in Autumn two pests and two cousins bitter-sweet friends
roots dig into soil floods clean them off again this is getting old!
some feed bird and beast and some seek soil as siblings more than enough
now seed-heads spring faster than flowers form frantic foraging
watching south-seekers who forbear the frost and freeze this snowbird stays
peeking carefully - giggling behind the tree stump: "they’ll never find us!"
summer lites the match then autumn flames leap skyward snow cools the embers
climbing toward winter every leaf perfectly stitched on a Persian rug
Flowering asters Late season binge-drinking bees - One more before frost…
Here was High tide once, Fled the rock, gone out to sea - Tides cannot decide…
Wonder what’s inside… Bird or snake, glop or candy - Tempting to find out!
This showy sumac Feather in cap before Fall - Spring, post-Labor Day…
Trees ask, "What happened?" "I do not know" says the rock - "It’s gone like summer"…
Out in every way, Reaching moss, fern, leaf, and stone - Her neighborly roots…
Hard life, this maple, Twin trunks full of life today Many tiny shoots…
Mother of Beech trees, Children arrayed all around - They all stay in touch…
Not a thought given As the blade sawed through the tree - Out popped a village!
We’ve got character! the mushrooms say to the tree - She just rolls her eyes…
Up from the humus, Standing proud in jaunty hat - Mycelium rules!
This frenetic time, Flower and fruit and decay - Altogether now…
Tall grasses say so, The goldenrods nod with them - Seeds will slumber soon…
Ferns are first to sleep, Oaks complain, "it’s still summer!" But ferns know better…
Hands on, minds quiet - We flow into heart spaces, Healing each other…
The wind crescendos morning leafs plop on wet stone whooshing then plopping…
I wait among leaves Hoping the rain will fill me So the birds may drink…
Sermon for Lent 3 (year C), March 24, 2019 St. James, Poquetanuck & Grace Church, Yantic Looking at today’s gospel, you wouldn’t be far from the mark to think that we might call this "Manure Sunday". The very thought makes all the gardeners ...
Sermon for Epiphany 2 (year C), January 20, 2019 St. James, Poquetanuck & Grace Church, Yantic Illumined by God’s Word and Sacraments, may we shine with the radiance of Christ's glory. . The Wedding at Cana story is the first of seven "signs"...
Sermon for Sunday, December 2, 2018 (1 Advent Year C) St. James Poquetanuck, Grace Church, Yantic, CT For me the holidays are difficult. I react badly to the artificial joy and commercialism that I perceive in this season, and I get on my hi...
Sermon for Sunday, October 28, 2018 (Proper 25 Year B) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT One of the disadvantages of reading the Bible the way we do every Sunday, is that we get little snippets of the story here and there, and thi...
Sermon for Sunday, September 30, 2018 (Proper 21 Year B) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT Grace Church, Yantic, CT Today’s gospel is difficult. There are hard saying here that suggest that maybe we should be wacking off arms, legs,...
Sermon for Sunday, May 27, 2018 (Trinity Sunday Year B) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT 1+1+1 = 1. That’s what Trinity Sunday celebrates; this odd and paradoxical idea that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are somehow one and the s...
Sermon for Sunday, April 19, 2018 (7 Easter Year B) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT What is Christian Hope? Why do we worship today and then go out into the world… into our neighborhoods… to work on God’s mission? What is the hope...
Sermon for Sunday, April 22, 2018 (3 Easter Year B) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT At the Southeast Region Convocation yesterday, our Bishops, Ian and Laura led us through a discussion about “What is a Parish?" It was a great event ...
Sermon for Sunday, March 7, 2018 (4 Lent Year B) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT Have you ever been impatient with a situation, and completely exasperated with the people involved? Ever had the sense that “Whatever peace is, this plac...
Sermon for Sunday, December 24, 2017 (4 Advent Year B) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT Our King and Savior now draws near: Come let us adore him. “Mary! Mary Nazareth!" I look down at the list of homeless people waiting for intake...
Sermon for Sunday, November 12, 2017 (2 Advent Year B) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT What did they experience out there in the wilderness, all those from the whole Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem? What did Baptism and co...
Mystic Micro-Gospels; small spiritual stories in and around my neighborhood in Southeast CT A quiet singer, sitting to the side, rose with the funeral congregation for the final hymn. He thought to himself "Although I can sing well enough, I w...
Sermon for Sunday, November 12, 2017 (Veterans Sunday) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT Army Command Sergeant Major Roger Heinze was quoted in the Washington Post while talking to a team of soldiers in Afghanistan after a mission in...
Sermon for Sunday, October 15, 2017 (Proper 23) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT Matthew’s Parable of the Wedding Feast is difficult on two counts. First that it suggests that God is in the Destruction-of-Cites-by-Fire business a...
Mystic Micro-Gospels; small spiritual stories in and around my neighborhood in Southeast CT Forty gather on the grassy lawn in front of the church, nervously laughing as the facilitators line us up across the green. There have been a lot of ne...
Mystic Micro-Gospels; small spiritual stories in and around my neighborhood in Southeast CT I see it on the corner along my walking path... a Little Lending Library. It calls to me. "I'll just take a picture" I say to myself, "Nothing more." ...
Mystic Micro-Gospels; small spiritual stories in and around my neighborhood in Southeast CT I'm sitting on the front porch stoop when a friend and neighbor walks by. He sighs deeply. "Mike", I say, "That's a pretty heavy sigh..." and go to th...
Mystic Micro-Gospels; small spiritual stories in and around my neighborhood in Southeast CT She asks "What is the purpose of Tai Chi?" Conan-the-Barbarian replys: "To crush our enemies, to see them driven before us, to...." She smiles and inte...
Mystic Micro-Gospels; small spiritual stories in and around my neighborhood in Southeast CT In Cathy's office there hangs a framed poster of Julian of Norwich, by Cynthia Large. I ponder it often during the resting times and interstitial mome...
Sermon for Sunday, September 24, 2017 (Proper 20) St. James Episcopal Church, Poquetanuck, CT “All things come from you oh Lord; and of your own are we giving you" Today’s parable of the grumbling workers comes after a sequence in Matthew...
Mystic Micro-Gospels; small spiritual stories in and around my neighborhood in Southeast CT The two lines face one another like Napoleon and Wellington drawn up for battle. I've never met my partner, my mock-angry opponent; I'm to be the angr...
Mystic Micro-Gospels; small spiritual stories in and around my neighborhood in Southeast CT "If I was the one interviewing her", she says gently, "I probably would have said that she isn't eligible... but, I wasn't the one who was talking with h...
Mystic Micro-Gospels; small spiritual stories in and around my neighborhood in Southeast CT Paul had asked for an overnight vigil. I sat there to keep him company and the church open for those who wanted to stay with him a while. With Compline...
Mystic Micro-Gospels; small spiritual stories in and around my neighborhood in Southeast CT He is standing across the street, looking angry at our local collection of Occupy Wall Street protestors; glaring. I can see the wheels turning while he...
