Author: Maggie Gillespie

Mark 1:9-15 A question that sometimes comes up when we consider Jesus’ baptism is “why.” Why did he get baptized; God’s own son, fully human and fully divine, without sin. Why? Whenever we baptize a person in the church, we always ask one question: Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world? This is the first question that must be answered by anyone presenting themselves or a child for baptism. This is the first affirmation we make in the church. We stand at the church door, so to speak, and we renounce the ways of sin and the power of evil before we step over the threshold. From this point on, we are saying, this is who we are. We are the ones who renounce the power of evil in the world. It’s quite possible you […]

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 The poet, Mary Oliver, wrote a poem called “The Summer Day.” It begins with a question: who made the world? Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? Big questions for a lazy summer day, I would think, but then it becomes apparent that she is no longer thinking grand thoughts, head in the clouds, because she is distracted by this grasshopper in her hand. Whatever she was thinking about before, she is now completely and utterly engrossed in this singular grasshopper. the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down – who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she […]

Psalm 50 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Have you ever looked at one of those optical illusions where, when you first look at it you see one thing and maybe someone else sees a different thing? And then if you keep looking at it, you will probably eventually see that other thing too? But sometimes you don’t. People are saying to you, “Look, don’t you see it?” and you try all kinds of tricks with your eyes – you squint, you look at it sideways, you try the soft-focus – but you still cannot see the image other people see. You just don’t have a clue. It is somehow, in the words of the Apostle, veiled to you. In 2nd Corinthians we can see the contours of a relationship between the Apostle Paul and the church in Corinth. And if it seems a bit muddy to the reader, that is partially because […]

Psalm 62:5-12 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 In 1864 as the Civil War was coming to an end, Jourdan Anderson and his wife Amanda, fled from the Tennessee plantation where they had been enslaved all their lives. They moved to Ohio. Jourdan found work, and their family grew and flourished. A year later, their old master, Patrick Henry Anderson, wrote Jourdan a letter asking him to consider coming back to work for him. Jourdan could have ignored the letter. He could have sent a caustic and profane reply, but he didn’t. He sent a wonderful reply to the old master. Sir, I got your letter and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdan, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have […]

Psalm 62:5-12 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 One day in 1780 the sky over New England turned dark at 9:00 in the morning. All of nature was disoriented and terrified. The people said, “This is the day of judgment!” It lasted until midnight, when the stars began to appear in the sky. The strange occurrence is thought to have been caused by a combination of smoke from forest fires and a heavy fog. But at the time, there was great concern, even after the darkness lifted, as people became obsessed with the idea of a pending apocalypse. There was a sect of Christians in the area that benefitted from this – the Shakers. They took advantage of this end-times anxiety and went on an evangelistic tour of New England, preaching their beliefs and practices. The Shakers believed in preparing themselves for the end by giving up their worldly goods and practicing celibacy. […]