Some have requested that I make the opening and closing comments to our conversations available as well as our programs. Bear in mind that the conversation is a conversation, so the middle part is just questions that may or may not have been asked on Sunday. I hope they are questions readers will find fruitful to consider. Program Opening Comments …
Demons of Resistance: Sadness, Anger, and Acedia
One of my Lenten practices this time is to fast on Mondays. The hunger is not the worst part. Rather, I find myself watching the clock and wondering when dinner is. When I realize that I’m not going to eat dinner, it is devastating, not because I want the food, but because I want to get away from what I’m …
Demons of Desire: Gluttony, Lust, and Avarice
As I’m sure you all remember, dear readers, we are spending Lent with 4th century mystic Evagrius Ponticus, taking a pilgrimage back to the self and God. Sadly, our journey is thwarted by adversaries, demons that seek to distract us from our task. This past Sunday, we met our first adversary in the story of Jacob wrestling in the night. …
When Demons Attack
I struggle with sin. Not so much the doing of it, though I do my fair share, but the naming of it. I struggle with how to talk about sin or think about sin. Like many of us, I grew up in a church that used guilt and shame to win conversions. And, after the conversion, the guilt and shame …
Celebrate Mardi Gras CITC style!
If you don’t find yourself in New Orleans this year but are in the mood for some Creole cooking, zydeco rythms and eccentric company then come out and celebrate Mardi Gras with Church in the Cliff tonight! 7pm at the Shirleys, 221 S. Edgefield Ave.
Fronagetarstuin
Our lectionary brings us to what is called The Transfiguration, where Jesus transforms into a divine figure on a mountain top to Peter, James and John. Traditionally this story has been understood as a reminder of Jesus’ divine pedigree due to thegrowing disbelief of Jesus as the Son of Man. The timing of this passage, after all, takes place along the journey to Jerusalem where we know Jesus’ fate. …
Wake up!
We don’t do a lot of preaching at CitC, but if I were to preach, I might say something like this. I wrote it for my preaching class. I hope that it becomes good news for someone. Scott ———————– Matthew 8:18-27 (NRSV) 18 Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other …
Healing: Is There Choice?
In the healing narrative recorded in Mark 1:40-45, a man with leprosy says to Jesus, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Jesus does so choose and makes him well. In one of the healing stories in the Gospel of John (5:2-9), Jesus initiates the conversation with a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, asking him, “Do …
Presentation of Jesus
The scripture (Luke 2:22-40) this week is about expectation and fulfillment of ritual, not to mention prophecy, with multiple characters proclaiming great things about the child Jesus. Wow. This is serious theater, with amazing characters, one of whom hasn’t left the temple in years, and another that tells of a sword that will pierce the soul. Poor Mary and Joseph …
A Fishy Calling
When I first read the lectionary text for this week, I laughed a bit. Of course the story of Jesus calling Peter and Andrew to follow him and be “fishers of men” is a familiar part of my childhood faith tradition. When you attach a biblical story to a silly song with cheesy hand motions, it just seems to stick …