Jesus Offering the Light (Arathi) by Jyoti Sahi. 2004, India. Collection of the Artist. Dear Incarnation, Welcome to the season of Lent. The forty days of Lent are a traditional time for the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (acts of charity). As a community, we will spend this season practicing a particular form of prayer called the Examen, which I introduced in Sunday’s sermon ( listen here ). The Examen was created about 500 years ago by Saint Ignati

Dear friends, During my sabbatical last summer, I visited Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Though it is most famous for the stained glass interior, I found myself drawn to the stone carvings surrounding the arched exterior door. My two favorites are above: the creation and temptation of humanity. The figures are surprisingly tender for hundreds-years-old carved stone: God's loving gaze at the person he calls from the dust. God's gentle hand on the shoulder and arm of Eve, drawing he

Hiking in the Italian Alps last summer Dear Incarnation, This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday, the final Sunday before the season of Lent. Our scriptures tell mysterious, evocative stories of mountain traverses, radiant light, descending clouds, and a divine voice. These are stories of heaven meeting earth; God’s divine life breaking into our creaturely life and our material world. It’s also an Acapella Sunday, when we’ll particularly attune our ears to the simplicity and po

God-with-us has been revealed . . . now we have to go home a different way. The themes of light, revelation, and wonder have come up over and over again in our gospel readings and feasts during this season of Epiphanytide, or Ordinary Time, between Christmastide and the start of Lent. Again and again, Jesus is revealed to various audiences.

The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Mafa, Cameroon, 1973 Dear friends, I’m not sure I have ever gotten a response quite like I did to Sunday’s sermon on meekness (you can listen here  if the snow kept you away!). I’ve already heard about several after-church meals where people wrestled together with the challenge of meekness. And I’ve received nearly a dozen thoughtful texts and emails. I am so heartened and humbled by this response. You are asking the kinds of questions I want us

Mountain Village in Winter, Tatsuo Kawashima, Japan (2016). The main image from Sunday's Zoom service. Dear friends, The season of Epiphany reminds us again and again that God’s light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it. But the light of God’s inbreaking revelation often seems minuscule — stars, prophecies, babies, candles — compared to the surrounding gloom. Rather than eliminating the darkness, God’s light pierces it and guides our steps through it

Our intrepid hikers braving the cold! Dear Incarnation, Happy belated Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, friends! I loved seeing the photos from the urban hike that some members of our church took around the tidal basin and the MLK memorial. Some of you know that I share a birthday with Dr. King. Growing up, my parents often encouraged me to honor this coincidence by living in a way congruent with King’s legacy. (Conversely, my son shares a birthday with Snoop Dogg, and I sincerel

"And he shall reign forever and ever" — from the score from Handel's Messiah Dear Incarnation, What a sweet Sunday, recalling the hospitality of the Holy Family through chalk and stars, and welcoming Arthur and Mason to our own holy [church] family through water. It was good to be together after such a dizzying start to the new year. The news cycle has been unrelenting, and if you’re like me, you’re still trying to make sense of the last major headline when the next one (and