Blinded by the wrong vision …

Abba Joseph transformation

Preached at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Bailey's Crossroads, Va., on the Third Sunday of Advent. My friends in Christ, Father James has asked me to speak this morning to all of us gathered here, which means that part of this sermon will be in English, and part will be in Spanish. I need to tell you that my Spanish, while good, is nowhere near as strong as it could be … so I ask you to bear with me on that … please. Mis amigos en Crist0, Padre James me ha pedido hablar esta mañana a todos los que estamos aquí reunidos, lo que significa que parte de este sermon sera en Ingles, y … [Read more...]

Wise words on Haiti

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New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof has an excellent column in this morning's paper on Haïti. His message: Help is more than emergency aid. Haïti needs jobs and trade and education as well. "Ultimately." he says,  "what Haïti most needs isn’t so much aid, but trade. Aid accounts for half of Haïti’s economy, and remittances for another quarter — and that’s a path to nowhere. "The United States has approved trade preferences that have already created 6,000 jobs in the garment sector in Haïti, and several big South Korean companies are now planning to open their … [Read more...]

Who said anything about ‘gentle’?

We need to give them clean water.

I woke up this morning with Advent on my mind. I was replaying in my head messages from friends and various Advent resources calling this moment in our lives a time of “gentle waiting.” “Gentle waiting!” I thought. “Why are we engaged in gentle waiting?!?” I’m fear that we are trying to tame Advent when we make this call. And I don’t think Jesus wants us to do that. I mean, what’s gentle about the Gospel lessons we hear in this season? Jesus tells us to keep awake, therefore, for we do not know on what day our Lord is coming. (Do we really imagine that the … [Read more...]