The Liturgical Year

Palm Sunday is weird. I mean, even for Christians, Palm Sunday should be weird. In Luke, Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem and we can almost hear the sigh of "let's do this" under his breath and the weirdness starts. We meet our hero in the midst of Chapter 19: 29 When he had come near

This sermon was offered at St. Lydia's in Brooklyn, New York on the first Sunday of Lent, February 17, 2013. Worry. Luke 12.13-34 I was an anxious child. I worried about being left alone. I worried about doing the right thing, whatever that was. I worried that other kids would pick on me. I worried. And as I

Last night, our small band of Lydians gathered in Brooklyn's Atlantic-Barclay's subway terminal, same busy corridor as last year, with a fiddle, shruti, and drum, we offered ashes to all who want them. Again, strangers came out of the river of traveling people to ask for ashes. And they thanked us for offering a simple ritual

Today we remember that we are dust - just like last year and the year before and for as far back as we can remember caring about this day, Ash Wednesday. But we must be told we are dust. We tell each other we are dust. It's not enough to tell ourselves that we are

Sprengidagur! Bursting Day! Yes, today is Bursting Day in Iceland, when you eat all the salted lamb (saltkjot) and pea soup you can eat. Or can't eat. What other culture would call their day before Ash Wednesday "Bursting Day"? I don't know, but Iceland continues to be AWESOME. The challenge is that being vegetarian, I