Turns out reading Frederick Buechner while making corn chowder is a good combination. "You can sincerely believe there is no God and live as though there is. You can sincerely believe there is a God and live as though there isn't." ❤️ Inspired to add some dried mustard.

God chose to be our mother in all things

The Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande received a letter from Trump’s DHS today accusing them of human trafficking because they run a shelter for migrants—a shelter paid for, in part, *by* DHS. It is an attack on the freedom of religion, and on the trustworthiness of the govt. youtu.be/7Wl4f0bA4MI

My cat Biscuit can't read a clock. And he cares not one bit about a time change. 🤷🏽‍♂️

They are who we think they are

Why does this week feel like 1000 years? 🫠

Just a truly gutting piece from @christianitytoday.com about when ICE agents came to a church to arrest an immigrant last week. The whole thing is worth reading, but this section asks the big question: why was it necessary to arrest him there? www.christianitytoday.com/2025/01/shou...

Musk overseeing coup: www.reuters.com/world/us/mus...

I don't WANT to preach this morning -- JD Vance is not a serious person, he lacks the intellectual chops to do this kind of work, so rewarding his thirst with response is undignified -- but the Spirit demands at least a brief bit of sermonizing

Jesus said, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." This is right after he says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. To be a living temple of God's Spirit of Perfection is to be a vessel of mercy. To be devoid of mercy is to be devoid of the Holy Spirit.

in 1.5 hrs: Due to the number of executive orders, immigration raids, and other policy changes, EMM is scheduling an additional immigration call. EMM will share updates and resources and will be joined by the OGM & the Chief Legal Officer. zoom.us/meeting/regi... ⚓

At least 15 Indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico have reported being stopped at their homes and workplaces, questioned or detained by federal law enforcement and asked to produce proof of citizenship during immigration raids since Wednesday, according to Navajo Nation officials.

In response to this, Rep Mike Collins of GA tweeted that she should be deported. So let's talk about disgust again, because we are seeing disgust driven fascism in real time. 1/

I will note that pulpit from which the Bishop gave her sermon is not only the one from which Martin Luther King Jr gave his last sermon on the Sunday before he was killed, it also contains a panel of a man being martyred, paired with an exhortation for God to open the eyes of a tyrannical leader.

« Je veux l’acclamer toute ma vie, célébrer mon Dieu par mes chants tant que j’existerai. Ne comptez pas sur les gens influents : ce ne sont que des êtres humains, ils sont impuissants à sauver.

“No confíen en los poderosos, * en mortales incapaces de salvar. Expiran y regresan al polvo, * y sus planes acaban en la nada.

“Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, * for there is no help in them. When they breathe their last, they return to earth, * and in that day their thoughts perish.

Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde to Trump: "I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender people in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives ... and the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals"

Pals doing pal stuff! Photo from my collection, ca. 1950s.

Many of us who are dismayed/afraid/etc are also disproportionately those who believe it is the role of the government to protect the vulnerable and defend justice and provide for those in need. That those are public roles, not private ones.

Ironically, most penguins aren't aware that today is Penguin Awareness Day and they think it's just a regular Monday. The reason for this, of course is that they refused to adopt the new Gregorian calendar in 1582, and still adhere to the old Julian one, for tax purposes.

Collect for the Feast of the Epiphany: God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the Peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face;

I think it might be noting that the main reason why pre-modern Christianity is so keen to pray for rulers (once Christianity is legal and it’s not a prayer to be left alone) was the strong sense that wielding power is bad for you & acting in the interests of the state strongly encourages you to sin.

Beyoncé’s epic Christmas Day football halftime performance was so nice, you can now watch it twice - or as much as you want to.

“Radical evil is loose in the world, and it finds many well-meaning people and institutions to serve its purposes. That is what the New Testament means by the ‘principalities and powers.’”–Fleming Rutledge, Advent

“Hell is not a place. It is a domain. It is the domain of evil, the sphere where wickedness rules. It is, I believe, necessary to posit the existence of hell as a way of acknowledging the reality and power of radical evil.”–Fleming Rutledge, Advent

“The overall testimony of the Old and New Testaments is that God will save us from the judgment, but he will not save us without judgment.” — Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ by Fleming Rutledge

“So let me say it again: God will save us from the judgment, but he will not save us without judgment. God being who he is, he cannot allow evil to exist forever. Something has to be done about the human heart, which constantly misleads and deceives.

“Wherever people are willing to come out from the paralysis caused by fear and anger to active participation, there is the Advent spirit. Wherever there are voices in the darkness speaking out for light, there is the Advent hope.

Stay safe my folks in the City.

S Korean people’s revolt against wannabe dictator is the first time I’ve followed a breaking news event mostly here and it’s great so far.

“Reading the signs of the times is one of the most important of all the gifts given to the church. How often we have failed! We have remained silent when we should have spoken; we have retreated into our churches when we should have acted; we have mistaken a worldly cause for the cause of God.

Clericool clergy collars are not the most comfortable thing on a foggy Central California Fall morning.

O Lord, you have given us the life of Dorothy Day, who fed and sheltered the urban poor and who steadfastly advanced the cause of social justice and peace over greed and war; stir up your grace among us; that we may too pursue the justice and peace proclaimed by your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

I often quote older works that use generic male pronouns, that should not be taken as an endorsement of the practice today. I do not speak or write in that way, but I also do not feel free to revise or alter other authors in that regard. My intent is not to offend.

“A man can do worse than be poor. He can miss altogether the sight of the greatness of small things.”–Robert Capon, The Supper of the Lamb

“Three things there are which the earth cannot bear, yea, four which are to be feared as the shadow of death: A painter who will not look, a sculptor with a dead thumb, a musician with a tin ear, and a cook with a wooden palate. Let Ithiel therefore listen.”–Robert F. Capon, The Supper of the Lamb

“To be sure, food keeps us alive, but that is only its smallest and most temporary work. Its eternal purpose is to furnish our sensibilities against the day when we shall sit down at the heavenly banquet and see how gracious the Lord is.

“Man’s [sic] real work is to look at the things of the world and to love them for what they are. That is, after all, what God does, and man was not made in God’s image for nothing.”–Robert F. Capon, The Supper of the Lamb

"Food is the daily sacrament of unnecessary goodness, ordained for a continual remembrance that the world will always be more delicious than it is useful."–Robert F. Capon, The Supper of the Lamb

“Unlike American Christianity, the Bible is not individualistic, but thoroughly social in its orientation. When the church groans with Isaiah, “Thou hast hid thy face far from us,” it speaks as a corporate body with a common lot. If one suffers, all suffer.”–Fleming Rutledge, Advent

“‘An absence that has been overcome.’ That is what the church believes about God. A religion that talks about God being obviously present all the time is not true. That would be a religion that had taken God for granted, that had tried to appropriate God for its own ends.”–Fleming Rutledge, Advent

Please inform Katy Perry that I do, in fact, feel like a plastic bag

“The right word for the connection between the purpose of God and human activity is “participation.”

“The way that Jesus interacted with the powerful is the template for Christian political action.