Deborah Hutchison’s Confirmation sermon – Coming of Age

A Service of Confirmation May 10, 2008
Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 1 [...]

The Weekly Word for June ll is Fear of the Lord

Contemporary mystic Annie Dillard writes this about Sunday worship: “Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke?…we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offence, or [...]

The Weekly Word for April 30 is GLORY

Just the other morning, the view through our east-facing living room window was a luminous montage of blooming branches – red bud, dogwood, viburnum, the last of the forsythia – woven through with the tender green of new leaves, all sparkling with dew and back-lit by the newly risen sun. Goldfinches, blue jays, purple [...]

The Weekly Word for November 20 is DOMINION

Troublesome word: dominion.
It shows up early in the story of God’s people (*). We’ve used its appearance there to excuse all sorts of destructive human behavior, from the capriciousness of rulers exercising their ‘divine right’ to the systematic exploitation of our home planet’s un-renewable resources. Was it really God’s intention in handing us the [...]

The Weekly Word for October 23 is FAITH

Faith is not an easy concept to pin down. Just take a look at the dictionary’s list of accepted meanings: allegiance to duty or a person, loyalty, fidelity to one’s promises, belief and trust in and loyalty to God, belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion, firm belief in something for which there is [...]

The Weekly Word for September 25 is PRAYER

A lot of people find prayer intimidating. Folks I work with as a Spiritual Director wonder if they are praying the “right” way, or if, indeed, they are praying at all. Some encounter the apostle Paul’s injunction to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and respond with understandable dismay. Some strain to form words [...]

The Weekly Word for August 28 is LISTENING

When we began this “Weekly Word” project, a newsprint pad was placed on an easel in our worship space and the congregation was invited to list words that described being part of the St. David’s community. Listening was one of the first words written.
This struck me as odd. Episcopalians are, after all, a [...]

The Weekly Word for July 31 is WELCOME

Welcome;
from the Middle English wilcume,
which is from the Old English wilcuma,
which is made up of two Old English words:
willa, which means “desire” and cuma, which means “guest.”
So, the word upon which we wipe our feet at household thresholds, the word which we often say reflexively when greeting visitors, doesn’t mean “Hi, there!” or “Come [...]

The Weekly Word for July 10 is HOME

We’ve been back from sabbatical for just a few days and I find coming home to be a paradoxical experience. How wonderful it is to walk familiar fields and woods, see what’s blooming in the garden, reconnect with friends, settle into my own bed with the cat in her accustomed place behind my knees and [...]

The Weekly Word for June 26 is PILGRIMAGE

For as long as we humans have sensed the presence of Spirit, we have held to be sacred places where we experience that presence with particular intensity. We travel to these ‘thin places’ laying down along the way our usual pursuits and distractions. We come as intentional seekers; our focus the emptiness that craves [...]