Rector's Blog | The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

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WLSU: What I Learned in 2024

This blog is also available as a podcast I want to do something I don’t normally do. I want to look back on this past year and name a few things I learned in 2024. I wouldn’t normally do this because, frankly, who the hell am I to tell...

WLSU: Useless Christmas

This blog is also available as a podcast Usually this time of year, as we prepare for Christmas I try to write something about how you should go easy on yourself, about how the holidays are stressful enough without you having to add to tha...

WLSU: After The Thing

This blog is also available as a podcast I wonder what happened the next time Lazarus got a bad cough. You remember Lazarus. He was one of Jesus’ best friends. He wasn’t even listed as a disciple – just a guy that Jesus loved so m...

WLSU: Don't Let Go

This blog is also available as a podcast 11 years ago my family and I walked into a theater and watched what would become one of the most significant movies of the last several decades. Of course I’m talking about Frozen . It became the...

WLSU: Work Hard. Be Kind

This blog is also available as a podcast For the last few years I’ve had the privilege of driving my daughter to school most days. It occurred to me one day as she was getting out of the car that as her parent I should say something spec...

WLSU: The Days After

This blog is also available as a podcast Well, this is the last blog I will publish before the election. I am aware that nothing I could say at this point would sway your vote one way or the other. I think most of you who know me and have ...

WLSU: Believing Now

This blog is also available as a podcast The text message hit my phone at exactly 7am last Sunday. This is not the most unusual thing. Anny often texts me early on Sunday mornings. She oversees the worship at the Church of the Redeem...

WLSU: Your Voice, Your Place

This blog is also available as a podcast There’s a story in the Bible about a woman grabbing onto the hem of Jesus’ garment as he’s walking through a crowd and it heals her. Almost comically , Jesus stops and says, �...

WLSU: Unwelcome Beliefs

This blog is also available as a podcast There’s a story about when the Dean of my seminary was interviewing for the job. He’d gotten to the point in the process where he was being asked questions in a semi-public forum – interested ...

WLSU: Permission to Disagree

This blog is also available as a podcast “So are there other Republicans at the church?” he asked me. And I laughed. I laughed because it was a great question, asked directly, and without a hint of irony or cynicism. My breakfast co...

WLSU: Christian American

This blog is also available as a podcast Last week I insisted that, as a Christian who is American, I must understand myself as Christian first – that my Christian identity supersedes my Americanness. There are, of course, problems with ...

WLSU: I Love My Country

This blog is also available as a podcast The first morning after I returned from my first trip to Italy, I woke up, went out to the front of my house and put up the American flag. I was 20 years old and had spent a semester studying in I...

WLSU: Our Children

This blog is also available as a podcast What does it look like to value our children? How do we care for them? What is our responsibility to our children? I have been thinking about this a lot. And I want to say this very clearl...

WLSU: Waiting (Tables) for the Lord

This blog is also available as a podcast I used to wait tables for a living. Every so often I miss it. I liked taking care of people. I loved the camaraderie with some of the other waiters. Not all of them. But when you figu...

WLSU: Indoctrination

This blog is also available as a podcast I didn’t go to church much while I was on sabbatical. Obviously I didn’t go to my church at all. But I did go to a couple others – one in Cincinnati, and two while I was out of t...

WLSU: In My Bones

This blog is also available as a podcast Did you know that our bones are constantly breaking themselves down and building themselves back up again? You probably did know that. Most of you are better at knowing scientific things than m...

WLSU: What About Now

This blog is also available as a podcast I have told the story before of how I had a conversion experience on a hillside in Italy. Standing on this hiking trail overlooking the Mediterranean I heard the voice of the God I had been doubting f...

WLSU: I Don't Practice Santeria

Hi friends. As you may know, I am currently on sabbatical and we'll be out until August 11th. Throughout my time off we have a couple new episodes that I recorded prior to leaving that are related to my sabbatical journey. We will also rerun a c...

WLSU: To Live that Belief

WLSU: A Really Broken Ankle

WLSU: An Intervention (Transformed by Love)

WLSU: Are You Tired

WLSU: The Dishwasher is Full (Again)

WLSU: Accepting Blessing

WLSU: When a Church Practices What it Preaches

WLSU: The First Time

WLSU: Ordinary Miracles

WLSU: Conversions - Part 2

WLSU: Conversions - Part 1

WLSU: 14 Kinds of Ketchup

WLSU: New Orleans

WLSU: Conversations with Nancy

WLSU: Silent Conversion

This blog is also available as a podcast Hi friends. As you may know, I am currently on sabbatical and we'll be out until August 11th. Throughout my time off we have a couple new episodes that I recorded prior to leaving that are rel...

WLSU: The Meal is I Love You

This blog is also available as a podcast One of the most amazing things about food is how consistently it is used as a way of saying “I love you.” Sure, there are the obvious examples like the Valentine's Day chocolates in the...

WLSU: Save Me but Not Like That

This blog is also available as a podcast As a parent, there are few things as frustrating as when a young child insists upon doing something themselves that they are genuinely not capable of doing. Tying a shoe, buckling a seatbel...

WLSU: Believing and Eating

This blog is also available as a podcast I can’t really talk about my sabbatical without talking about the pandemic. It’s possible you’re tired of thinking about the pandemic. I’d be lying if I said I was tired of talki...

WLSU: No Self Improvement

This blog is also available as a podcast In exactly one month I’m going on sabbatical. I will be away from my job for just under four months, and will not be in contact with anyone from this church I love. When people find out I a...

WLSU: Repentance at the Gym

This blog is also available as a podcast Today at the gym I overheard a conversation. I did not mean to . I was not eavesdrop ping . Well not at first anyway. In my defense the person working out next to me was talking at normal v...

WLSU: Cancelled

This blog is also available as a podcast At Church of the Redeemer’s Thursday morning Bible Study we are currently reading through 2 nd Corinthians . 2 nd Corinthians is likely a n edited collection of two to three ...

WLSU: Prosperity and Adversity

This blog is also available as a podcast Here is your uplifting piece of Scripture for the day. It comes from the book of the prophet Jeremiah, and it goes like this: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord , “plans...

WLSU: Love and Death

This blog is also available as a podcast The story goes that Valentine was a clergy person in the Roman Empire during one of the times of heavy Christian persecution, that he performed Christian marriages – which were illegal at the time �...

WLSU: Audacity and Humility

This blog is also available as a podcast I n my first parish job, my rector told me it takes audacity and humility to be a priest. He said it take audacity to actually believe that the God who made all things has called you to preach...

WLSU: Loving Kindness

This blog is also available as a podcast I want to be kind. I want to be kind today, to be kind tomorrow, to be kind relentlessly. I want to make it my discipline. I’ve already failed at my New Year’s resolution, so I may as well start...

WLSU: More Than That

This blog is also available as a podcast In November of 1984 my parents threw an Election Night party. I still remember the little elephants on the cocktail napkins. I was five years old and understood nothing about politics, but I ...

WLSU: A Nation of Prophets

This blog is also available as a podcast Ch ristians often misunderstand the point of the biblical prophets . We’ve been doing this for centuries. We act as if their primary purpose is predicting the future. More specifi...

WLSU: Until You Love Them

This blog is also available as a podcast I once heard a story about Desmond Tutu, and I’m not sure if it’s true, but I’m going to tell it to you anyway. First , you probably know , but in case you don’t – Desmond ...

WLSU - Back At It

This blog is also available as a podcast It’s worth noting that Jesus didn’t always like his job . This is well-documented. And I’m not talking about when Jesus slipped away from the crowds to get a little alone time or pr...

WLSU: Compared to What - Throwback Episode

Editor's note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on October 28, 2022. This blog is also available as a podcast One of the first concerts I attended after thin...

WLSU: Everybody's Birthday

This blog is also available as a podcast A parenting expert recently told me that she hates children’s birthday parties. And I immediately thought to myself, “Well sure, all adults hate children’s birthday parties. They are ...

WLSU: An Advent Progress Report

This blog is also available as a podcast How is the buildup to Christmas going for you? Are you experiencing hope and joy and all that ? Are you being festive enough? Are you fee ling all the correct feelings? I want to take this ...

WLSU: We Almost Died

This blog is also available as a podcast My family and I almost died last week. Here’s what happened and how I’m feeling about it today. Many years ago, a previous owner of our house added on one little room . In...

WLSU: Childish Things

This blog is also available as a podcast I come from the first generation to play video games at home. I remember being very young and our family having an Atari set on which I played Pong and Pitfall. The first gaming console that was rea...

WLSU: Multitasking Gratitude

This blog is also available as a podcast One thing you learn when you grow up is that multi-tasking is impossible. This may seem counterintuitive for you if you are an adult who feels like you are constantly juggling a wide array of co...

WLSU: Growing Up

This blog is also available as a podcast There’s a lot not to like about growing up. I get tired more easily, and I have indigestion a lot . I snore now. I pay bills and have responsibility. I feel responsib le for other...

WLSU: Trust Women

This blog is also available as a podcast W e were still living in Virginia when my wife Krista got pregnant with our first child. I was just finishing up seminary and we were getting ready to move back to California, but we still ha...

WLSU - The Silence

This blog is also available as a podcast I remember the first time I took communion in the Holy Land. There is a moment in the Eucharistic Prayer where the priest holds up the blessed bread that has become the Body of Christ and breaks it ...

Rector's Blog: Good Grief

This blog is also available as a podcast Earlier this week I was driving on I-95 from Boston to New Hampshire , where I used to live. I was struck by something – more a feeling than a thought. And as the rental car moved f orward, ...

Rector's Blog: Got To Get You Into My Life

This blog is also available as a podcast When I was 14 years old I fell in love with The Beatles. I was in a booth at Islands Restaurant on Tustin Avenue in Orange, California eating cheese fries with my mom when this song came on that I�...

Rector's Blog: Becoming a Runner

This blog is also available as a podcast I was a runner once about 12 years ago. I don’t just mean that I ran once. I mean I became a runner. I had jogged now and again growing up, but was never a runner. Then one day I thought to myself...

Rector's Blog: Holy Dying

This blog is also available as a podcast What is your prayer when you know someone is going to die? So many of my prayers for the sick and dying are centered around their return to health, for a cure, for an end to the disease, for a rever...

Rector's Blog: When I Became an Episcopalian - Part 3

This blog is also available as a podcast I became an Episcopalian because of Jesus. As I wrote/talked about last week, when I was 22 I was invited to a ttend a class at a local Episcopal Church. This happened to me when I was right...

Rector's Blog: When I Became an Episcopalian - Part 2

This blog is also available as a podcast I became an Episcopalian because of the cookies. This is a true story. Last week I told you about being invited to a class at an Episcopal Church by a frien d of a friend of a friend. We w...

Rector's Blog: When I Became an Episcopalian

This blog is also available as a podcast I became an Episcopalian because of a f armer’s m arket. In my early 20’s I was living in Venice Beach, CA , and I would go with my friends to a nearby farmer’s market on Sunda...

Rector's Blog: Nourished by Ritual

This blog is also available as a podcast Do you remember the bowls you used for your breakfast cereal as a child? I do. We had these light blue hard plastic bowls with rims on them. I ate cereal every morning without fail . S...

Rector's Blog: Nourished by Training

This blog is also available as a podcast I was talking to a friend recently who is a pilot, and he told me that 30% of his flight training focused on emergency landing and crashing. For all the complexity of plane mechanics, navigation, th...

Rector's Blog: Nourished by Giving

This blog is also available as a podcast When I first started making bread I got to a point where I was making up to 20 loaves per week. Yes, it was excessive. It was the Fall of 2020, and we were all homeboun d. T he church buildi...

Rector's Blog: Nourished by Community

This blog is also available as a podcast I’ve heard people say that once Jesus healed someone, he told them to follow him . And it makes sense doesn’t it? Now you can see, so you should see where I’m going. Now you can w...

Rector's Blog: Nourished by love

This blog is also available as a podcast My favorite thing to do at the end of a particularly good meal is to proclaim out loud to whoever is nearby , “ I’ll never eat again.” It is not very funny, but I’m a dad n...

Rector's Blog: Older

This blog is also available as a podcast I remember how big my e lementary s chool seemed to me when I was growing up. I remember the high ceilings of the hallways, the endless playground, and those big front steps where ...

Rector's Blog: Accepting Blessing

This blog is also available as a podcast My Dad told me he was gay when I was 13 years old and I made the decision in that moment to accept him for who he was . That is not to say I actually did accept him for who he was immed...

Rector's Blog: The Political Church

This blog is also available as a podcast I really hate the idea of combining politics and religion. I have spent most of my priesthood trying to avoid it. I have said before that I came from a tradition where, if you weren’t a conse...

Rector's Blog: Growing in Understanding

This blog is also available as a podcast The first trans person I knew I met in high school. It was 1996 and I had never heard the term transgender. At this point in my circles, we used the terms gay, straight, and bisexual to describe ...

Rector's Blog: My Daughter's Sign

This blog is also available as a podcast My Black Lives Matter sign is getting old. It’s starting to fray at the top and fade a bit. It’s looking a little shabby. We got the sign about two and a half years ago, in the Fall of 2020. It ...

Rector's Blog: Inspired

This blog is also available as a podcast Jack Nicholson showed up in public again last week. It had been several years since he took his seat courtside for a game of his beloved Lakers. He’s 86 now and he was certainly moving a l...

Rector's Blog: Where is God

This blog is also available as a podcast Where is God when things are terrible? Where is God whe n I pray for the healing of a loved one and they get sicker? Where is God when I pray for their healing and they die instead? Where is ...

Rector's Blog: Raise Your Hand

This blog is also available as a podcast The first time I ever got kicked out of class was for arguing with my teacher. I was in 5 th grade and Mr. Ahlers said that dinosaurs never existed. This was actually not the point of w...

Rector's Blog: Listening for Love

This blog is also available as a podcast. Each week in our Banquet service there is a time in the liturgy where people in the congregation are invited to respond directly to the homily - to ask the preacher questions, or make comments, or shar...

Rector's Blog: Unprovable

This blog is also available as a podcast Recently, I have written about some of the more mystical experiences I have had in my life. I wrote about hearing God speak to me on a mountainside , and about my father communicating to me ...

Rector's Blog: The Phone Call

This blog is also available as a podcast I remember the last phone call I had with my dad. It was right around Easter of 2006, and it was on one of those old phones that was actually connected to a wire and sitting on a table. It rang and I pi...

Rector's Blog: When God Feels Like It

This blog is also available as a podcast Last week I wrote about the time I found Jesus in a Beatles song . A few weeks ago I wrote about hearing the voice of God while hiking in Italy. Both of these things are true....

Rector's Blog: But Through Me

This blog is also available as a podcast When I was 14 I got in to an argument with some other kid’s mom in youth group . She brought a video to our Sunday gathering about how R ock music comes from the Devil and made us ...

Rector's Blog: Conversions - Pt. 2

This blog is also available as a podcast I was 41, standing in my kitchen with my hand in a bowl full of flour and water and salt, and I did not hear God talk to me. I didn’t hear much of anything, other than the same Ella Fitzgerald albu...

Rector's Blog: Conversions - Pt. 1

This blog is also available as a podcast I was 20 years old, walking a trail on the side of a hill in Northwestern Italy when I heard God speak to me. I was by myself, having walked far ahead of my traveling companions, and I was stuck i...

Rector's Blog: Better Not Easier

We were standing at the graveside of a man who had recently died. The casket had not been lowered down into its resting place yet. In fact, the family had not yet arrived. There were three of us priests in attendance – two too many, honestly ...

Rector's Blog: All The Things We Do Not See

This blog is also available as a podcast I sure had a lot of opinions about homeless people before I began working directly with people who were experiencing homelessness . That is not to say I had a lot of negative opinions. ...

Rector's Blog: Just Words

Thib blog is also available as a podcast When I was a bully, I didn’t think of myself as a bully. I was just a kid. I was not tall or physically imposing. I did not threaten the boy in any traditional sense. I did not touch his things or ste...

Rector's Blog: That God of the Old Testament

This blog is also available as a podcast Today I want to talk about the Old Testament God. Or rather, I want to talk about how there’s no such thing as the Old Testament God . Christians will often talk about the “Old Testament�...

Rector's Blog: Giving Up

This blog is also available as a podcast One of the best things about New Ye ar ’ s resolutions is when you give up on them. I don’t mean when you miss a day, or start to slack: I mean when you just throw in the towel and say...

Rector's Blog: Dumpuary

This blog is also available as a podcast I want to tell you about a magical time of year called Dumpuary . But first let me set the scene. Let’s talk about movies. For a movie to be eligible for an Oscar in 2023...

Rector's Blog: New Year Same Me

The blog is also available as a podcast Just before Christmas, I told you about the Christmas cards we hang in our dining room during the holidays. Going into this past Christmas, we noticed that we had received significantly fewer cards t...

Rector's Blog Throwback Series, The More You Love

As part of our When Love Shows Up Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on August 25, 2022 This blog is also available as a podcast. On my 10th birthday I got a CD player and my first two CD...

Rector's Blog: Your Perfect Christmas

This blog is also available as a podcast My wife has this custom of hanging all the Christmas cards we get by clothespins on a line that is draped across the wall of our dining room. Throughout this season w e eat our meals surrounded ...

Rector's Blog: When We Are Talking

This blog is also available as a podcast One of people’s favorite things to tell me when they find out I’m a priest is how long it’s been since they went to church. Or that they don’t go to church at all. Or that they’...

Rector's Blog: When You Have Enough Faith

This blog is also available as a podcast What does it even mean to have faith? I finished my blog/podcast last week by asking the question, “W hat if you actually have enough faith right now? ” b ecause it’s my experi...

Rector's Blog: When I Don't Want to Believe

This blog is also available as a podcast I’m not all that interested in having faith. I’m not. Yes, I lead a faith community. Yes, I believe in Jesus. Yes, I’m a Christian. But if I’m going to be honest with you, I have to t...

Rector's Blog, Why I'm Religious and Mostly Ok with it

This blog is also available as a podcast It has taken me a long time to be comfortable with the fact that I am religious. But I am, in fact, i ’m religious . It’s not just that I believe in God or think Jesus is pretty great (thou...

Rector's Blog: Why I Believe in Jesus for Now

This blog is also available as a podcast Why do I believe in Jesus though? Last week I wrote about believing in God even though terrible things happen . But why do I believe in God? Why do I believe in Jesus? Why a...

Rector's Blog: Compared To What?

This blog is also available as a podcast One of the first concerts I attended after things began opening back up was Bob Dylan at the Aronoff Center in Downtown Cincinnati. People who know me know how important Dylan’s music i...

Rector's Blog: Throwback Episode, What Percentage of Your Income Do You Give to The Church?

As part of our When Love Shows Up Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on July 28, 2020. This blog is also available as a podcast. What percentage of your income do you give to the church? Do...

Rector's Blog: Throwback Episode, Where is Jesus in your Spending?

This blog is also available as a podcast. Editor's note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Fall Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on July 22, 2020. Where is Jesus in your spending? I asked y...

Rector's Blog: When Money Talks

This blog is also available as a podcast I want to warn you right out of the gates that I’m about to talk about money. Before you shut down completely, please know that I won’t be asking you for any money today. I reserve the righ...

Rector's Blog: When God Is Toxic

This blog is also available as a podcast I want to start today with a hypothetical scenario: Imagine you have a friend that has gotten into a relationship with a man and things are starting to get serious. You ask them what he’s like, an...

Rector's Blog: The Words We Cannot Say

This blog is also available as a podcast When Moses asked what to call God, God gave him the run around. “I am that I am,” was God’s response. Except it may not have been. The same phrase could be translated, “I will ...

Rector's Blog: Living Worship

This blog is also available as a podcast Hi Friends, This year Church of the Redeemer is doing some work to think through how we worship – assessing our liturgies, and naming our core values as a worshiping community. In Aug...

Rector's Blog: The More You Love

This blog is also available as a podcast. On my 10th birthday I got a CD player and my first two CDs. They were pop phenomenon Paula Abdul’s debut album, Forever Your Girl, and glam-rock band Cinderella’s Long Cold Winter. Thus began m...

Rector's Blog: If God is Love

This blog is also available as a podcast If God is not Love, I don’t really see the point of church. I don’t think Church makes you a good person. I don’t think it exists as a tool of self-improvement. It’s not ...

Rector's Blog: Scared of Death

This blog is also available as a podcast On my 30 th b irthday I attended an autopsy. I should explain. It was the summer of 2009 and I was working in a chaplaincy program at Washington Hospit...

Rector's Blog: A Tale of Two Churches

This blog is also available as a podcast It’s a tale of two churches. One is grieving. The church they knew and loved is gone. The building is there, as beautiful as it has ever been, and many of the people are still engag...

Rector's Blog: Will The Church Survive?

This blog is also available as a podcast I hear this question so often. Sometimes it’s asked directly and explicitly. Other times it is implied. It’s not a new question, by the way. I have been an Episcopalian for 20 years, and I have ...

Rector's Blog Throwback Series: A Need for Hope

Editor's note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on September 30 2021. This blog is also available as a podcast I didn’t really th...

Rector's Blog Throwback Series: Hoping for Peace

Editor's note: This blog is part of our Throwback Series and was originally posted on December 17, 2021. The blog post is also available as a podcast. “This year I resolve to be more sexist.” It was New Year’s Eve ten years ago...

Rector's Blog Summer Throwback Series: We Don't Talk About Abortion

Editor's note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on May 20, 2022. This blog is also available as a podcast. The prevailing narrative in our country is that ...

Rector's Blog Summer Throwback Series: We're Taking a Break

Editor's note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on November 18, 2020. This blog is also available as a podcast. Back in April, shortly after Church of the R...

Rector's Blog, Conversion

This blog is also available as a podcast I remember my final year of seminary when I found out where my first job was going to be. I called up one of my mentor s, a priest who had overseen my work at a local church , and I said, “I...

Rector's Blog, Pride Series: You Are A Blessing

This blog is also available as a podcast Hey, friends, I am still recovering from COVID, and am in need of rest, so I do not have a new blog/podcast for you this week. That being said, we are at the beginning of Pride month, and I did no...

Rector's Blog: Bury The Rag Deep

This blog is also available as a podcast William Zantzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll. This is the first line of a song Bob Dylan wrote when he was 22 years old. The song is called The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, and in it, Dyl...

Rector's Blog: We Don't Talk About Abortion

This blog is also available as a podcast The prevailing narrative in our country is that Christianity and abortion rights are incompatible with each other. This narrative exists despite the fact that , outside of White evangelical pro...

Rector's Blog: Learning what I Believe

This blog is also available as a podcast. I have not always believed in someone’s right to have an abortion. In fact, my change in belief is fairly recent . I grew up in a religious tradition that taught me in no uncertain te...

Rector's Blog: We Believe

This blog post is also available as a podcast Friends, in the weeks to come, I will be devoting my blog(podcast) to the conversation about reproductive rights, and especially abortion. It is a difficult topic. The Christian co...

Rector's Blog: Magnificent and Complicated

The blog post is also available as a podcast. I was at a wedding once back in my mid-20’s where both the bride and the groom had lost a parent – both their fathers had died. I remember this for two reasons: First, because my own ...

Rector's Blog: For The Unprepared

This blog post is also available as a podcast We are in the midst of Holy Week, and Easter is upon us, and that can only mean one thing for me: I have failed at another Lent. It has become my new tradition, failing at Lent. I cann...

Rector's Blog: Throwback Series, Proclaiming the Blessing You See

Editor's note: This blog is part of our Throwback Series. This blog post was originally posted on March 17, 2021. The blog post is also available as a podcast. I believe that LGBTQ+ people are a blessing to this world. The church ...

Rector's Blog: Thy Kingdom Come

This blog is also available as a podcast Episcopal author and activist Vida Scudder wrote these words in 1917: “This is the hour of opportunity ; this is the hour of the Church. In the last fifty years she has accomplished a great pr...

Rector's Blog: Incompletely White

This blog is also available as a podcast. During one of our Lenten Series discussions, I saw a really beautiful moment of vulnerability, curiosity, and affection . I want to share it with you because I t hink it illustrates some o...

Rector's Blog: Angry and Beautiful

The blog is also available as a podcast. The first time I heard the band Nirvana , I was in 7 th grade. Their breakout song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was all over the radio, and its video was in constant rotat...

Rector's Blog: Practicing Promise

The blog is also available as a podcast. The first five books of the Bible, t he Tora h, comprise the narrative that shapes and defines the people called Israel. The other books of what we Christians call the Old Testament ...

Rector's Blog: Following Love, Finding Transformation

The blog is also available as a podcast. I have been married for almost 14 years. I didn’t get married because I wanted to change. I didn’t get married because I wanted to become a different kind of person. I got married because I love...

Holding Space for Frustration and Hope

The blog is also available as a podcast. We are entering into a time of hope. I’m not talking about the religious season of Lent, though that is wonderful: I’m talking about this time in our church in relation to COVID-19. Tra...

Rector's Blog: Throwback Episode, Make You Odd

Hey, friends, welcome to my podcast, When Love Shows Up. This week we’re going to rerun an episode from last year because I find it has held its relevance in terms of our community response to COVID-19. While some of our guidelines have change...

Rector's Blog: For the Bengals

This blog is also available as a podcast “Ok, it’s time for a serious question,” the Search Committee member said to me. I was in the living room of a parishioner in the midst of the final round of interviews for the role I cur...

Rector's Blog: Sibling Rivalry

This blog is also available as a podcast There are no wounds like family wounds. When families fight, the stakes are higher, the passions run hotter, the love, hate, resentment, and care all run deeper. This is the way of things...

Rector's Blog: Jesus is a Jew

This blog is also available as a podcast Jesus is a Jew. This is a central part of Jesus’ identity, and it is essential for Christians to understand Jesus’ Jewishness if we are going to be serious about our faith in him. ...

Rector's Blog: For Our Children and Their Educators

This blog is also available as a podcast This week I had to tell my kids that they were going back to remote learning. It was pretty terrible. I told them on the drive to school . It was going to be the last day of in-perso...

Rector's Blog Throwback Episode, In Service of the Melody

Editor's note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on October 7, 2021. This blog is also available as a podcast Typically, when I ask someone what k...

Rector's Blog Throwback Series, More Than You Can Bear

Editor's note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on September 9, 2021. This blog is also available as a podcast The phrase “God will never give ...

Hoping for Jesus

This blog is also available as a podcast I’m a talker. If you know me, you already know this. I’d like to hope that my talking is not for its own sake, and that even when I go on too long and talk too much there�...

Hoping for Peace

This blog is also available as a podcast “This year I resolve to be more sexist.” It was New Year’s Eve ten years ago and we were standing in my kitchen. It was just my friend Rebecca and me – our spouses were in the other...

Hoping for Company

This blog is also available as a podcast We have family coming for Christmas, and I’m pretty excited about it. One of the hardest things about moving to Cincinnati has been not having family nearby. And, of course...

Hoping for Normal

This blog is also available as a podcast I was a workaholic before the pandemic. I used to think being a workaholic meant someone who worked 80 hour weeks or never took days off. I took days...

The Gratitude in the Grief

This blog is also available as a podcast When my family sits around the table to eat, one of the children usually presides over the pre-dinner prayer. This prayer sometimes becomes a rambling litany of thanksgivings. Other times i...

The Whelming Flood

This blog is also available as a podcast “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows...

Fall Throwback Series, Loneliness and Belonging

This blog is also available as a podcast. This past Sunday the Church of the Redeemer held in-person worship for the first time in 7 months. I have to tell you it was absolutely wonderful. In the truest sense of the word: filled wi...

Fall Throwback Series, Where is Jesus in your Spending

The Gift and the Work that Follows

This blog is also available as a podcast If you’ve been around the Church of the Redeemer the last few months, you’ve likely noticed that our grounds have never looked better. This was no accident, and in fact there’...

Tacos and Friendship

This blog is also available as a podcast When I told my friend Brian I would be leaving Southern California and moving to Cincinnati, Ohio, he did not bring up our friendship, or the weather, or the church I served, or the re...

Rector's Blog: Equipping the Sent - A Financial Commitment for 2022

This blog is also available as a podcast “Sent into the world, rooted and grounded in love, to serve all people with humility, compassion, and faithfulness.” As we emerge out of the isolation we have ...

Rector's Blog: In Service of the Melody

This blog is also available as a podcast Typically, when I ask someone what kind of music they like, they will respond with specific genres. They’ ll say, “I like country,” or “I like rap,” or “I like classic rock,” or...

Rector's Blog: A Need for Hope

This blog is also available as a podcast I didn’t really think much about Hope until it was politicized. It was the 2008 presidential campaign, and then Senator Barack Obama ran with the slogan “Hope”. In the spirit of transp...

Rector's Blog: Waiting for Jesus

This blog is also available as a podcast Dear Paul, you told us that Jesus was coming back. You said he’d be coming back and making everything right. Jesus isn’t back yet, and things aren’t all right. Oh, and also people ar...

Rector's Blog: Life on Purpose

This blog is also available as a podcast Do you think your existence is an accident? Are you here by coincidence? Do you just happen to exist, and now you’ve decided to cobble together something that vaguely resembles pur...

Rector's Blog: More Than You Can Bear

This blog is also available as a podcast The phrase “God will never give you any more than you can handle” is a particularly nasty bit of bad theology that has infiltrated our lives and made them measurably worse . The proble...

Rector's Blog: Uncurated Love

This blog is also available as a podcast I remember watching TV when I was a kid and waiting for those commercial breaks. This was when you got a refill of your drink, or grabbed a snack or, in the most dire of situations, went to the bath...

Rector's Blog: God of Transformation

The blog is also available as a podcast . One day God changed Abram and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah. While this moment may have been coming for a long time, and while in retrospect, it may seem obvious to us why that name change ha...

Rector's Blog: A New Sunday

This blog post is also available as a podcast. Beginning on September 12th, we will be offering a new Sunday worship schedule, and we will be returning to our full array of four worship services: Rite I Eucharist, Rite II Eucharist, The Ba...

Rector's Blog: Meant for These Times

This blog is also available as a podcast. My favorite Beach Boys album, Pet Sounds , includes a song where Brian Wilson opines repeatedly, “I guess I just wasn’t made for these times.” It’s a reflection on feeling disconnected,...

Rector's Blog Summer Throwback Series: No Such Thing as Secular

This blog is also available as a podcast . Editor's note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Summer Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on August 5, 2020. Every time I preach or write about th...

Rector's Blog Summer Throwback Series: I am Thankful for You

The blog is also available as a podcast. Editor's note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Summer Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on November 25, 2020. One Thanksgiving we put our names in...

Rector's Blog Summer Throwback Series: Real Unity

This blog is also available as a podcast. Editor's note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Summer Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on January 27, 2021. Unity is the buzzword of the month. I...

Rector's Blog Summer Throwback Series: What about the Bible?

This blog is also available as a podcast. Editor's Note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Summer Throwback Series we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on June 14, 2019. When as a Church we say we believe in the ...

Rector's Blog Summer Throwback Series: Witness!

This blog is also available as a podcast. Note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Summer Throwback Series, we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on June 7, 2019. What if the Church really listened to LGBTQ+ pers...

Rector's Blog Summer Throwback Series: You Are a Blessing

This blog is also available as a podcast. Note: As part of our When Love Shows Up Summer Throwback Series, we are re-posting this blog post which was originally posted on May 31, 2019. The Church of the Redeemer believes in the full ...

Rector's Blog: It's Your Church

This blog is also available as a podcast. In my first church job, whenever I would allow myself to be consumed by stress, my boss and mentor would remind me of the Pope who would conclude each day with the prayer, “It’s your ch...

Rector's Blog: Emergence

This blog is also available as a podcast . I was watching the cicadas in my front yard yesterday and was struck by something. First of all, there are a lot of them. I mean, a lot of them. Dozens of shells of the molted cicada exoskeletons sit...

Rector's Blog: Make You Odd

The blog is also available as a podcast. This past week, I preached about how odd being a Christian is. I addressed this message first to a room of several dozen people in masks sitting in every other pew, distanced at least 6 feet from on...

Rector's Blog: Not a Blog

This blog is also available as a podcast. Friends, I won’t be writing a blog this week. As you know, last week I announced that we would be returning to in-person worship indoors. This Sunday at 9am we will participate in Holy Eucharist ...

Rector's Blog: Regathering Ready

This blog is also available as a podcast I am pleased to be able to tell you that the Church of the Redeemer will resume worship indoors on May 16th. I want to devote the rest of this week’s blog, and likely next week’s as well...

Rector's Blog: This Blog is Not About You

This blog is also available as a podcast This blog is not about you. It's about your neighbor. Your neighbor belongs utterly to God. Your neighbor carries Christ within them and is as much a sign of God’s presence in the world as ...

Rector's Blog: With Ma'Kiyah Bryant

This blog is also available as a podcast . In the first century, an unknown Christian author wrote a sermon-like letter to a group of fellow Christians who were living under persecution, injustice, and uncertainty. They were scared, and they ...

Rector's Blog: CARE Team Love

This blog post is also available as a podcast. Rachel Blinka helped me get vaccinated. She didn’t know that was what she was going to do when she set up that Zoom call with me. We were just going to talk about her decision to become ...

Rector's Blog: Sent Ones

This blog post is also available as a podcast. I originally wrote this a little over a year ago as we meditated on The Way of Love – The Episcopal Church’s rule of life. My focus, as you’ll see, was on our movement out into the world...

Rector's Blog: Church, Dead and Resurrected

This blog is also available as a podcast. I really thought we’d be back indoors by now. We saw the COVID case numbers start to dip after the holiday surge, and the vaccines started to come out, and I thought, “This is it: We&rs...

Rector's Blog: Proclaim the Blessing You See

The blog post is also available as a podcast. I believe that LGBTQ+ people are a blessing to this world. The church community I serve, the Church of the Redeemer, affirms this belief, as does the Episcopal Church to which we belong. We do ...

Rector's Blog: One Year

This blog is also available as a podcast. This week marks the one-year anniversary of the day the Church of the Redeemer decided to cease in-person worship and indoor gathering. Friday, March 13th, 2020. The clergy, staff, and wardens gath...

Rector's Blog: Hard Times Come Again No More

The blog is also available as a podcast. Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears while we all sup sorrow with the poor. There's a song that will linger forever in our ears Hard times come again no more 'Tis the so...

Rector's Blog: Proclaiming Suffering, Proclaiming Joy

This blog is also available as a podcast. Something really beautiful happened during the Annual Meeting this Sunday. Actually, it happened more than once, and it kept happening. First of all, I want to say that the meeting itself was magical...

Rector's Blog: A Vision of Beloved Community

The blog is also available as a podcast. At the Church of the Redeemer, we have a vision . We have a vision of a worshiping community that knows Jesus and grows in Love: United in relationships of holy connection and communion; growing w...

Rector's Blog: Proclaiming the Dream

This blog is also available as a podcast. What if you knew you were loved fully, totally, unconditionally exactly as you are right now? Knew it in your bones and felt convinced of your belonging in this world? Now, on top of that, what if ...

Rector's Blog: Update On Regathering

This blog is also available as a podcast. Friends, it’s been a while since we spoke about how our church is dealing with the pandemic, and I thought it might be time to catch up, and to provide as clear a picture as I can give you abou...

Rector's Blog: Real Unity

This blog is also available as a podcast. Unity is the buzzword of the month. In the aftermath of the deadly insurrection that capped off a traumatic election season that took place in the midst of the (still ongoing) greatest public health ...

Rector's Blog: Stubborn Christians

This blog is also available as a podcast. I became a priest, in part, out of stubbornness. I was a waiter at the time, and my coworkers had a lot to do with my decision. Throughout our time working together, many of them consistently commu...

Rector's Blog: When We Repent

This blog is also available as a podcast. Last week I wrote that throughout the Epiphany Season, I planned to interview parishioners about their vocation for my blog. Then Wednesday, January 6th happened. We watched a violent act of insurr...

Rector's Blog: Your Epiphany

This blog is also available as a podcast. Ok, so Christmas is over. The baby was born. Jesus is here. God with us. Now what? In the church we celebrate a season called Epiphany, and I’m here to tell you it’s underrated. Epiphany ...

Rector's Blog: Wait and Wonder

This blog is also available as a podcast. Every year is the same. Every Christmas, as the day approaches, we stress about the same things: About our expectations for the day, for the season, about if we will give and get the right things for...

Rector's Blog: Rest in Peace

This blog is also available as a podcast. Yesterday I held my friend David’s hand. He told me he loved me. I told him I loved him. We talked about what had been, and what was coming. He told me he was ready. He told me he loved me again. I...

Rector's Blog: Rest Dysfunction

This blog is also available as a podcast My wife has a sleep disorder. It’s called Narcolepsy. You’ve probably heard of it, though you don’t necessarily know what it does. I remember thinking narcolepsy meant someone would fall aslee...

Rector's Blog: I am Thankful for You

This blog is also available as a podcast. One Thanksgiving we put our names in a hat. There were four families of people together that Thanksgiving – which feels so odd to imagine heading into this quiet little COVID holiday, but there...

Rector's Blog: We're Taking a Break

This blog is also available as a podcast. Back in April, shortly after Church of the Redeemer transitioned to remote and digital ministry, we had a realization: We were losing money. In response to the pandemic and based on our B...

Rector's Blog: Are You Tired?

This blog is also available as a podcast. Can we rest yet? Is it time? The dizzying, never-ending buzz, the exhausting, contentious election season, and the marathon Groundhog Day experience of a four-day Election are all in our rearview m...

Rector's Blog: In the Hands of a Competent God

This blog is also available as a podcast. Do you have your plan? We’ve been hearing this question a lot lately as Election Day approaches. And of course, it’s referring to your need to come up with a plan for how you will vote:...

Rector's Blog: When Jesus Votes

This blog is also available as a podcast. In Ireland, during the Troubles, if someone was asked, “Are you a Catholic or a Protestant?” and they responded, “I’m an atheist,” the question would come back immediate...

Rector's Blog: Why Christians Must Say Black Lives Matter

This blog is also available as a podcast. I do a lot of premarital counseling with couples. I don’t spend any time trying to figure out if these two belong together – that’s above my paygrade. And I don’t test them ...

Rector's Blog: Your Commitment in 2021

This blog is also available as a podcast. I’m writing to you today about how I’d like you to make a financial commitment to Church of the Redeemer in 2021. If this makes you uncomfortable, I hope you stick around anyway: Your u...

Rector's Blog: A Place for This Church in Your Life

This blog is also available as a podcast. It seems like we're supposed to preface everything these days with, "I know this not how we'd like things to be but..." We have an understanding, of course, that our lives have been radically up...

Rector's Blog: Unity not Uniformity

This blog is also available as a podcast. When I was growing up, we talked about politics in my family. Which is to say we argued a lot. Mostly around the dinner table. I’m not sure what there was to argue about – for all inten...

Rector's Blog: Last Sunday I Stayed Home

This blog is also available as a podcast. I stayed home and watched church on Sunday. I know you probably did too, since there were only 9 people in the building that day. But, y’know: Normally I’m in it. So even when we’...

Rector's Blog: Holy Connection and Communion

This blog is also available as a podcast. When we first started piecing together our Vision Statement a couple years ago, we knew we needed to talk about relationships. The relationships we build and foster here are like the marrow of the ...

Rector's Blog: I miss taking Communion

This blog is also available as a podcast. "I miss taking Communion." "Really? What do you miss about it?" I was not prepared to be challenged by a priest when I said I missed communion. But that was what was happening. I wanted him to say, �...

Rector's Blog: Building Unity

This blog is also available as a podcast. Last Sunday I walked down the center aisle of our Church for the first time in a long time. What’s more, I wasn’t alone! A small group of us had gathered together to rehearse the st...

Rector's Blog: No Such Thing As Secular

Last Spring, I preached a sermon about the political implications of the Gospel. It was, I have to tell you, not my favorite topic. Talking about divisive things in the church makes me squirm, and what’s more divisive than politics in our curre...

Rector's Blog: What Percentage of Your Income Do You Give to The Church?

This blog is also available as a podcast. What percentage of your income do you give to the church? Do you know the number? I have almost never known this number my entire life. I remember learning that in the Bible there was a mandate fo...

Rector's Blog: Where is Jesus in Your Spending?

This blog is also available as a podcast. Where is Jesus in your spending? I asked you this question last week, but I sort of hid it at the bottom of the blog, so maybe you didn’t notice it. We don’t get to avoid that question ...

Rector's Blog: We Sold Our House

This blog is also available as a podcast. Last Fall I was sitting in a presentation at our Annual Clergy Day and had no intention of having my life changed. My preference would have been to simply survive the day and get home before Cincin...

"We believe that the God that created you made you as you are on purpose. You are not a mistake. Your sexuality is not a mistake, a sin, or something to be cured, fixed, or healed. You are a blessing.

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