Reflections

Reflections
Is it easier to believe Good Friday or Easter?  Is it easier to believe in Good Friday and the betrayal, abandonment, suffering and death of Jesus on the cross or Easter and the resurrection of our Lord?For the first followers of Jesus, it’s clear that believing in Good Friday was a lot easier…
Reflections
The tomb is empty, and nobody knows where the body is.  Mary Magdalene tells the others about the mysterious disappearance, but they give up and go home.  Mary stays behind, weeping, and then fails to recognize the risen one before her.  As the days pass, each resurrected encounter…
Reflections
La tumba está vacía, y nadie sabe dónde está el cuerpo. María Magdalena les dice a los demás acerca de la misteriosa desaparición, pero se dan por vencidos y vuelven a casa. María se queda atrás, llorando, y luego no reconoce el resucitado ante ella. Al pasar los días, cada encuentro del resucitado…
Reflections
As Episcopalians in the Diocese of Massachusetts, we gave thanks last weekend as we elected a new bishop to lead us – the Rev. Alan Gates of St. Paul’s Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.  We will eagerly await his arrival as we look forward to his consecration on Sept. 13. We may have great…
Reflections
On Saturday, April 5, somewhere in the sea of electing delegates and prayerful observers from across the diocese, there will be a few of us non-Episcopalians.  The Massachusetts Council of Churches will send an ecumenical delegation to watch and pray with you.  Our intention is that our…
Reflections
Rowan Williams, scholar, theologian, poet and former archbishop of Canterbury has a wonderful collection of sermons entitled "Open to Judgment." Anyone who has encountered Williams's theology will be familiar with his understanding of this concept; in his work he places the Christian into a posture…
Reflections
Something that so often inspires my prayer is the fact that nothing in New Testament Scripture was actually written by anyone who knew Jesus of Nazareth.  We have stories of Jesus that were passed down from generation to generation because those stories spoke to specific issues in Christian…
Reflections
La realidad es que el tiempo de Cuaresma, que los cristianos han practicado por muchos siglos, es sobre el mismo anhelo de tener una mayor luz en el mundo, ya sea que usted vive en el hemisferio norte o el hemisferio sur. La palabra "Cuaresma" significa el periodo de 40 días que ahora constituye la…
Reflections
At a meeting last week of the Church Pension Group, a senior trustee who knows a good bit about the Episcopal Church and her congregations introduced me to somebody by saying, "Thomas is the rector of a parish in Boston, a broad church."  It's not a description I hear much--broad church-…
Reflections
This year we are blessed with a long green season between Epiphany and Lent. Unlike other years, we have time to wait, to wonder and to plan. We have time to await God's revelation of himself before plunging headlong into all the things we are supposed to do and feel during Lent. The light of…