Ash Wednesday

February 23, 2023.Reading time 9 minutes.

A year ago Ash Wednesday… It is about this time of night(1) I have not come home from church, but instead I am sitting alone in Roberts Forest at KPUMC. The fire pit is dying down. (This is an actual picture….) I’m praying a lot. I’m playing guitar. And I’m doing some pretty intense crying. […]

UMC Update

January 20, 2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

Kessler Park Friends: It’s been some time since I’ve updated you on the ongoing “split” in the United Methodist Church. I’ve been trying very hard not to “over-share” the play-by-play of almost daily developments, because it seems to me this could get exhausting. Further, as a part of my own spiritual discipline, I’ve been trying […]

Christmas and Shit

December 25, 2022.Reading time 13 minutes.

It’s Christmas Day, and so it’s the perfect day to talk about shit. I’ve probably already lost some of you, because you don’t think preachers are supposed to use such words. But for those who aren’t already writing my Bishop (feel free) read along…. Artists can get away with such words better than preachers. That’s […]

Your Inner Good Samaritan

July 11, 2022.Reading time 20 minutes.

“AND…WHO AM I?” This is the unspoken question the religious lawyer quizzing Jesus never asks. I really wish he had. Because I need the answer to this question, and so do you. I’m talking about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Every time I preach on that parable —as happened yesterday— I’m struck by a […]

White American Christianity’s Tribal Flaw

June 17, 2022.Reading time 15 minutes.

“Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God.”— John 16:2 “When your icon of the enemy is completeyou will be able to kill without guilt,slaughter without shame.The thing you destroy will have becomemerely an enemy of God, an impedimentto the sacred […]

Open Letter To Our Pride Flag Vandal

June 8, 2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

To the Pride Flag Vandal, I don’t know who you are. I don’t know your motivations. I don’t know why you chose to cut down our KPUMC Pride Flag from the flagpole on our property. But I thought I’d write you a short note today. Please know that we, the members and staff of Kessler […]

Faith, Not Fear, Is Calling us to Close

March 14, 2020.Reading time 8 minutes.

I’m gonna push back against churches boldly proclaiming that they intend to meet tomorrow and, by insinuation, calling the rest of us chicken or “afraid.” Because of the lack of wide-spread testing, because we don’t *scientifically* know just how widespread this pandemic goes, churches, schools, community groups, etc…are making the decision to close to the […]

At-ONE-ment

February 27, 2020.Reading time 4 minutes.

Lent is *supposed* to be about “turning a new way.” Unfortunately, for too many people, we grew up believing it was about “feeling bad.” There’s a big difference between the two. And that difference is summed up in this year’s theme for Lent at Kessler Park United Methodist Church: “At-ONE-ment.” The word that gets thrown […]