ACROSS THE LINES - Archive (2006-2020)

On Sunday, January 21, 2018, I shared this sermon at El Faro: the Border Church , our weekly celebration of communion at Friendship Park , the historic meeting place on the US-Mexico border.* "Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them   and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.   Jesus said, ' Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs  to such as these.'   When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there." - Matthew 19:13 - 15 I once heard someone remark that when little children presented themselves to Jesus' disciples, Jesus did not tell the children to become like the disciples. He told the disciples to become like the children. It seems to me there is a lesson in this for people in positions of power in Washington, D.C., who are now charged with determining the fate of some one million so-called "Dreamers," young people brought to the Un

I believe in ONE:     whose name is unknown,   whose qualities are innumerable,           whose love is inexhaustible;     beyond beginnings and endings,   the source of every blessing,        our eternal home. I strive to follow JESUS,  a mysterious  Jew, the embodiment of ONE;        He sought not fame, but brought good news,          humbling the powerful, rallying the weak,              reestablishing for all a kinship of the divine.    Faithful to his calling, he died on a cross,        reversing its power irreversibly;           arisen inexplicably,  he invited his followers,             and invites all, even still, without pretense or coercion,                to lives of self-sacrificing love. I trust in the SPIRIT:     whose holiness is complete and flawless,        whose comings and goings cannot be restrained,           not by my tradition nor by any other,              who speaks all languages     and understands sighs too deep for words;     whose re