Friends,

On Sunday, the Gospel text we read had Jesus predicting a coming apocalypse in the lives of his hearers, and promising to come in the midst of those catastrophes, breaking in like a thief in the night. My sermon asked this question: How do you hold on to hope in the dark? We practiced an adaptation of the ancient Jesus Prayer together as part of our response. You can listen to the sermon here.

Learn more about the Jesus Prayer using this handout from our friends at the Episcopal House of Prayer. The words I like to use are simpler than the traditional ones -- "Oh Jesus, have mercy."

One more note: If you've been exposed to Rapture theology, Sunday's Gospel text was likely very familiar to you. Below you'll find some thoughts on that.

With love,
Susan+

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Last Sunday's Gospel and the Rapture

See last Sunday's readings here.
The earliest Christians took seriously the promise that Jesus would come back, so much so that early Christian leaders had to tell people: no, please don’t quit your jobs and go live on a mountaintop watching for signs in the sky. Daily life goes on. That might be part of what Paul is doing in the text from the letter to the Romans in Sunday's assigned readings. Paul says to those people wondering what was holding up their Lord and Savior, stay awake. Don’t be lulled into sleepwalking toward all the seductions of the world. Live honorably. Practice the way of Jesus.

For two thousand years, Christians have been holding that tension. How do we live in the world as it is, this beautiful world, this world on fire, and stay watchful for God to set things right? How do we hold these things together?

Some Christians have tried to resolve this by piecing threads of Scripture together as if it were a puzzle, to try to predict what the end will look like. If you grew up hearing about the Rapture, this Gospel text might be very familiar to you. One will be taken and one will be left. In that rapture worldview, you want to be the one who gets taken up to be with God, right? Nobody wants to be left behind in the chaos.

Alas. That doesn't appear to be what Jesus is talking about at all. Read the Gospel text again, or even the whole 24th Chapter of Matthew. Jesus is talking about a flood coming along and sweeping people away, and in that context, I’m pretty sure we want to be the ones who get left behind. Not the ones who get drowned in the raging waters or swept up into slavery in the Roman Army’s campaign of exploitation.

One of the major problems with Rapture theology is the way it cherrypicks texts like this one from various places in the Gospels to support a very specific, very historically recent, very imaginative vision of the second coming.

A deeper question I'd like to ask is this: In your experience, how has Rapture theology been used as a tool of fear to control your behavior and your choices?

What if, when Jesus shows up, however that may look, it's actually good news for all God's people and for the world?

Tags: Rev Susan, Hope, Rapture

Friends,

Last Sunday, I preached about looking at Jesus' actions to see what the way of Jesus looks like. The Gospel we read was a scene from Luke's account of the crucifixion. There, as he's being publicly mocked at a lynching run by the state, Jesus shows kindness and mercy to the criminals being killed alongside him. You can listen here.

Here's some of what we see of Jesus' behavior in the Gospels: Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, welcomed the stranger. Jesus served, and taught others to serve. Jesus told the truth in the midst of injustice. In the midst of profound violence and scorn, Jesus stayed kind, stayed human, showed mercy.

Jesus shows us what the way of love looks like so that we can practice that way too.

This week, our liturgical calendar moves from the paradox of 'Christ the King' -- the end of the liturgical year -- to the yearning for justice and defiant hope of Advent. The origins of 'Christ the King' in anti-fascism point us back to the need for that hope. We have completed the full circle, and we begin again; if we are willing to see, the world around us cries out for God's restorative justice and defiant hope.

Many of you are taking your own actions to practice defiant hope in response to the many concerns about rising authoritarianism. I want you to know that we're exploring Grace's role as a congregation in that work as well. In a few weeks, a team of lay leaders will join Huldah and me to attend a planning session led by a local faith-based community organizing group. That organization is planning a series of national demonstrations and public actions in the spring, to gather people of faith around three key Christian practices: feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and welcoming the stranger. The team from Grace will attend the planning event and then discern whether Grace is called to participate corporately, sending participants as representatives of our faith community.

There is more than one right answer to this question. I'm already hearing from folks who are planning to attend as part of other organizations. Grace could position ourselves as a source of spiritual nourishment for the work each of our members does to practice the way of Jesus; we could also position ourselves as a vector for shared ministry in this direction. Grace members will be practicing the defiant hope of Jesus regardless. We will pray about our congregation's involvement and keep you informed. I hope you'll pray for that discernment as well.

I hope you get to eat something delicious with people you love this week, and I'll see you soon for the first Sunday of Advent.

With love,
Susan+

Tags: Rev Susan, action

Friends,
Last Sunday, Marion Larson preached a sermon that reminded us that "It's Friday — but Sunday's coming." You can listen here!

That theme of defiant hope was strong at last week's Annual Convention of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota—a gathering of clergy and lay leaders from the 100-ish congregations of the diocese for prayer and learning and worship and governance.

[ Read reflections from Linda, Tom, and Sarah, and see photos! ]

Here's a taste of what we heard from Bishop Loya:
These days, as we are “being a diocese in an exilic, remnant key,” the congregations of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota are going to need to:
1. Be weird. "Authentic Christianity will appear strange because Jesus invites us to live inside a very different story than the zero-sum battle of winners and losers that pervades our culture."
2. Keep digging the deep, interconnected roots that build resilience: apprenticing our lives to Jesus together.
3. Embrace our limits. "We often still try to sustain the local congregation as a full service program center for all types and peoples and interests – as if we could paddle the boat at the same speed that it used to be blown by strong cultural tailwinds. We are going to have to set down things that are not part of our core work of making disciples and practicing God’s way of love, and that will always disappoint someone."
4. Live with a bold and contagious hope that Love has already won. "As followers of Jesus, we face fear and hardship and death from the place of hope that is in us. God and the world don’t need us to be large, or wealthy, or influential. What God asks, and what the world needs, is for us to look like the cross of Jesus Christ, meeting the forces that assault God’s children with God’s fierce and gentle love, joining the Spirit, gathering all of it to God’s perfect embrace.”

You might hear more about some of that at our Annual Meeting on January 25!

With love,
Susan+

Tags: Rev Susan, convention, Hope

From Susan+:
A family reunion. A resource fair. Worship. A chance to fill your spiritual tank. All these things (plus some governance work) are part of the Annual Convention of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, the 100-ish faith communities and associated organizations that Grace Episcopal Church is part of. Our delegation (myself, Tom Boe, Linda Cobb, and Sarah Sivright) attended the event in Rochester last weekend and came home full of ideas, encouragement, connections, and energy. Also attending: Chris Opsal was there repping EfM (Education for Ministry, a scripture-and-theology-and-faith-reflection program), along with many clergy who attend or are friends with our congregation!

From Linda Cobb:
It was a gift to attend the ECMN Convention for 2025. I am always amazed, and delighted how inspired and uplifted I feel during, and after the convention. There were so many moments I could share about that experience, but I will have to keep it simple-such as: Bishop Loya's address to the convention-if you have access to that, I highly recommend it. He leads us towards the focus of convention, but also looking forward to our work ahead as a Diocese. There was a speech from Cyara who leads the Food Ministries at Casa Maria, deeply moving. Her message to us is: " remember to love and support people no matter who they are" and the collaboration the Bishop shares with Bishop Betsey from Iowa who led us in group work on Saturday. And so much more....what I will leave you with are a few of the moments that really touched me. Bishop Loya reminded us that what we are experiencing in our country right now-political and religious division is not novel. We have seen this happen throughout history. What he reminded us so deeply is this: "we may feel we are in a Babylonian type exile, rather than rage against it, let's get comfortable with discomfort, settle in, plant gardens, start a family, and seek the welfare of those around you" that this is a "gift to be embraced, tend to small communities of practice, witness and resistance!" Finally, "don't you forget the outrageous promise of God that will sustain you!"

From Tom Boe:
I heard one theme over and over in different ways at our ECMN Convention 2025: Our congregations seem focused mostly on money and building questions vs. God and community questions.

The story of St. James & St. Luke's was held up at Convention as a positive example of a community giving up their treasured place of worship and joyfully joining another in one place. In our world with fewer believers, though, many of our congregations have not done as well in focusing beyond their beloved building. They struggle for years to simply survive in place. Some have broken up and have faded away.

On the day after Convention the first verses of our Sunday Gospel (11/16/2025) hit me in a new way:
Luke 21: 5-6
When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

God never asked for a temple anywhere. Instead, God provided detailed instructions for the portable tabernacle (tent) that was to be set up to shelter the Ark of the Covenant wherever the Hebrews happened to be. It was David who decided on a temple, embarrassed that he’d built an elaborate palace for himself when God’s place was this old tent.

With God’s assent (if not encouragement), David carefully designed an elaborate temple, which his son Solomon built. Hundreds of years later, the Babylonians destroyed that "first temple" and carried the Hebrews off to exile in Babylon. Eventually Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon, released the Hebrews, and helped them rebuild their “second temple” on the same spot as the old one. Less than 50 years after Jesus's prediction, that second temple was again destroyed by the Romans and the Hebrew people were mostly scattered elsewhere.

For hundreds of years thereafter, the People of the Book—Jews, Muslims, and Christians—have killed thousands fighting over the hill and the surrounding land where that temple once stood. They continue to do so.

Now in our time, our congregation joined together, standing for God’s mission and for faithful community over devotion to a beloved place of worship. I fervently pray that we—and our Christian brothers and sisters—don’t forget what we learned during that time of testing, faithful discernment, and holy choice.

From Sara Sivright:
This being my third convention, I saw many familiar faces--some friends, some people I admired as our leaders, convention planners, key figures in the diocese. What immediately struck me was a sense of comfort and energy—two odd things to partner. I was taken back to the consolidation process that created Grace Church and gave us our name. Along the way, we were led by several groups of thoughtful, sensitive, smart and collaborative people, who helped us experience a miracle of sorts in a time of anxiety and pain. Now I was feeling the same comfort and energy in a different context. The amazing people of ECMN are leading us in a time of global anxiety and pain with spiritual reassurance and direction. As Bishop Loya said in his opening address, “The present story is not new—not novel but true.” He reminded us of our history as children of God and urged us to plant gardens even in places of exile, grow deep roots, accept our limits, focus on what’s most important, and have hope. Sounds to me like our Grace story and the message for what lies beyond our doors.

Tags: Rev Susan, ECMN, convention, Reunion, anxiety

Friends,

Last Sunday, I preached about grief, loss, and resurrection. You can listen to the sermon here.

In his poem Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot wrote, "In my end is my beginning." His poem was about the spiritual journey, but it applies too to the work of grief. In all the ways we find ourselves lost after the death of a loved one, God holds out a promise of resurrection that offers new life. I believe that new life does not erase the pain and wounds we carry, but lets us move forward, healed, forgiving and forgiven, with the hard-won wisdom of all those chapters of our lives. Whole and free, with our wounds and our scars.

Eliot's words point us, too, to the cyclical nature of the church year. In just a few weeks we'll celebrate Christ the King Sunday -- the 'end' of the liturgical calendar, when we proclaim Jesus as God's final word of restoration and hope. And then, the following Sunday, we begin again with Advent, the yearning for salvation. Our lives echo this movement, from end to beginning, in ways that are practical and mystical, too.

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, I wonder what vision keeps you going? What is the 'end' of the journey you hope to reach, with God's help?

With love,
Susan+

Tags: Rev Susan, grief, Death

Friends,
Last week, I preached about the practice of 'Reimagine.' We dug into the hard good news the prophet Jeremiah offered to his country-people in exile, and the hard good news Jesus offers in seeing the faithfulness of the Samaritan healed of leprosy. In both those stories, God is in the business of helping us reimagine things for a hopeful future. God asks that we do the long, practical, one day at a time work of trusting that God’s triumph over death is more real than the hardships we face. You can listen to the sermon here.

Last week, we did more of that reimagining at our Wednesday evening session. We talked about the story in which Jesus notices the faithfulness of the woman at the Temple who gives her last two copper coins, "all she had to live on." Many of us have been taught that Jesus held her up as a model to emulate. Put on your 'reimagining' hat here with me for a moment: What if Jesus was lamenting her gift? What if Jesus was pointing out the hypocrisy of a system in which the wealthy could easily give large sums out of their abundance, while expecting sacrificial gifts from those most in need? Read that story -- Mark 12:38-44 -- and then read the prayer below if you want to go deeper, and listen in to our conversation here.

With love,
Susan+

A Prayer to Help us Reimagine

Jesus of Nazareth,
In scripture we hear of a woman who gave her last coin away.
You pointed her out, but you did not say, “Go and do likewise.”

So we cannot help but wonder—did you point her out to ask,
“Why does this one have so little when others have so much?”

Did you point her out to help us see the injustice that led to her suffering?
Maybe.

So today, for her, and for you, and for every person who cannot afford to give to God
And put food on the table, we offer our gifts.
We pray that you would use them for your good.
Right what is wrong.
Balance the systems of injustice.
Use these gifts to build the world that we can only imagine
But you can bring forth.

In hope we pray,
Amen.

Tags: Rev Susan, Reimagine, Hope

Friends,

Yesterday, my sermon focused on the surprising meaning of a 6th-Century BCE scrap of real estate history -- the prophet Jeremiah, after decades of prophesying doom, releases his hold on that story just as the doom is about to come to pass. He lets go of that story and claims hope for the future, with prophetic performance art: the practical action of buying a field. You can listen to the sermon here.

This story has direct relevance to what I hear from so many of you and feel deeply myself -- a sense of despair that we are powerless to stop the authoritarian government we see now in the United States. I shared research from Erica Chenoweth, linked below, to offer hope: it takes fewer people than you might think, acting together, to help the silent majority withdraw its cooperation from an authoritarian regime.

Jeremiah's claim to the deeper story -- that God's dream of shalom is greater than all empires and authoritarians -- is what we stand on today, too. And because we trust that God's love prevails, we can offer our own performance art for God's kingdom, where we are, with what we have.

So: what story do you need to release in order to trust that God's vision of shalom will prevail? How could you practice the way of Jesus in this historic moment? What's the (metaphorical) field you can buy, where you are, with what you have?

With love,
Susan+

Dig into Erica Chenoweth's Research
Here are a few links to get you started:
Video: The Science of Protest, on the Civic Forum
Podcast: Why Protest Works, on We Can Do Hard Things
Website: ericachenoweth.com/research

Tags: politics, Despair, Hope, Rev Susan

Friends,

Last Sunday, I preached about pottery, about the fact that, until it's fired, the clay is infinitely re-shapeable. Our Scripture texts spoke of God as the potter, as Jesus invited people to reshape their stories, to rewrite who they could become. These earliest Christians had to overcome broken stories defined by enslaver/enslaved relationships, as they moved toward healthy stories of respectful friendships. God can do that reshaping work with us and with our stories, if we pause to remember what stories we've been telling ourselves. You can listen to the sermon here.

Money is one thing about which we tell ourselves a lot of—mostly unconscious—stories. And as Grace Episcopal Church looks to discern who God is calling us to be in the coming years, we are going to need to be able to remember and perhaps release some of our stories about money. Read on below to connect with reflections we're inviting everyone to engage this week and next, unearthing the story of your relationship with money.

We will spend the coming weeks engaging in four practices: Remember, Release, Reimagine, and Restore.

This season will be about asking: What stories about money have we learned and told, as individuals and as a congregation? Stories of scarcity, abundance, fear, joy, misuse, regret, shame, anxiety, deserving, grace, service, generosity, freedom? What parts of those stories are we still telling ourselves? If we’re willing to unearth these stories, we could let God heal them.

This is not about telling each other how much more you should be giving or what your money story should be. We hope it will be a season of openness, curiosity and healing, remembering the best of who we are and asking God to restore us into who we are called to be.

As you work through these spiritual practices, there will be opportunities to gather and talk with others. All the details are at the link below, and I hope you’ll join us for some or all of those gatherings.

With love,
Susan+

Tags: Rev Susan, Money, stories, Remember, Healing

Friends,

On Sunday morning, some of you heard an NPR Weekend Edition piece that included interviews with clergy serving near Annunciation. I was honored to be interviewed. You can listen to it here.

Last Sunday's sermon focused on the text from the prophet Isaiah -- and on God's bewilderment, in Isaiah's words: “My people have committed two evils – they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.” I spoke about the ways our culture, like Isaiah's society, has traded in the wild, living God for the small, broken gods. The idol of personal safety and personal wealth instead of God's dream of a society based in equity and care. You can watch the sermon here.

After twenty-five years of school shootings, our country's inability to make progress in mental health care, common-sense gun policy feels not just tragic nor like a mere failure of will. It feels insane. Like a collective choice not to make progress on mass shootings. How long, O Lord?

I feel bewildered. I know so many of you do too. Why have we traded in our sacred spaces - schools and churches and neighborhood streets - for pop-up war zones?

As we send our kids back to schools that regularly have to do lockdown drills, as we metabolize this latest violation, as we try to care for our neighbors, I hope you will be exquisitely gentle with yourselves and each other.

And I hope you will take to heart the words I shared from Bishop Loya on Sunday:
"Now is the time for us to show up looking, sounding, and acting like the real Jesus in the world. Now is the time for us to remember that the stakes of the gospel are high, and that following Jesus asks something big of each of us. Now is the time to remember that the Eucharistic communities we serve are not nice gatherings offering maudlin spiritual comfort, but are in the business of subverting the world’s violence with God’s irresistible love."

Some of you have already shared ways you're showing up for healing and peace. (Members of Grace have gone to the memorial site at Annunciation with peace flags—in the photo at the top of this article—and offered bagpipe music there!)

How are you taking action to show up looking, sounding, and acting like the real Jesus in the world? I'd love to share your responses in my email next week. Your small steps will be courage for someone else to take their own.

With love and bewilderment,
Susan+

Tags: Violence, Healing, Rev Susan

Friends:

Last night, we opened our doors for a vigil. Members, neighbors, and friends came and sat together in candlelight and silence.

The violence in our city in the past few days—gun violence incidents in South Minneapolis and at Annunciation Church and School in particular—hit close to many of us. I offer these prayers below, as you navigate exhaustion and fear and numbness and rage and grief, holding tight to a defiant hope in God's dream for the world: a life of safety and abundance, in right relationship with all our neighbors and the earth. We practice Jesus' way of defiant, embodied, joyful love, even and especially in the wake of profound violence.

Susan+

________________________________________________

Prayers in the Wake of Violence

Adapted from prayers by Bishop Deon Johnson of Missouri
bishopsagainstgunviolence.org

For Victims of Gun Violence
We pray as we as we call to mind the many victims of gun violence, those who have lost their lives, those who have lost their livelihood, and those who have lost life’s passion. We pray for those who have been killed here in Minneapolis, especially at Annunciation Church and School, and we hold their stories and their memories dear. May their loss not be in vain, and may we shape a new story of hope from the broken pieces of grief. Amen.

For Friends & Family of Gun Violence Victims
We pray with those who have been left behind, the families, friends, and loves ones of those taken by gun violence. We pray that in this time of heartbreak, grief, and loss that they might find comfort and hope to face the days ahead, and that their tears may be turned into songs of joy. Amen.

For Communities Torn by Gun Violence
We pray in hope as we tell the story of homes, communities, neighborhoods, cities and town shattered by gun violence. We call to mind the sacred ground around our nation that has been watered with the blood of loss and the tears of grief. Grant that we may work tirelessly towards a vision where all may sit under their own vine and fig tree in safety and security. Amen.

For First Responders
We pray for first responders, those who live with the horror of gun violence in service to the common good. We stand with them and their families as they heal from bearing witness to the aftermath of lives ended in violence. Grant that we, with them, may create a world where all are protected, all are honored and all are seen, valued and beloved. Amen.

For Schools
We pray for our school communities, for teachers and administrators who offer their energy and love for teaching the next generation, and who now also must safeguard the lives of young people with emergency protocols. We pray with them that our young people, growing up in an unpredictable and fearful world, will meet the challenges of violence with the courage to practice peace and reconciliation. Amen.

For Those Demonized in the Wake of Violence
We pray for our queer and trans friends and neighbors, for immigrants, and for all whose identities are weaponized as scapegoats in the wake of violence. Move our society to see the ways division and fear are leveraged for profit, and help us to reject the politics of hatred and fear, so that all can live with dignity and peace. Amen.

For The Perpetrators of Gun Violence
We pray for perpetrators of violence. We pray for their families, their friends, and those who love them. We pray for those who see no other way than violence. We pray for those who suffer from mental illness, social isolation, loneliness, and debilitating fear. Grant that we may reach out in love and transform anger into friendship and fear into hope. Amen.

For those who feel helpless in the face of Gun Violence
We pray in solidarity with those who feel helpless, dejected, or powerless in the face of the gun violence epidemic. We know that gun violence touches all cultures, classes, genders, races, tribes, and nations. We pray that we may not be overwhelmed by gun violence but that we may overwhelm the world with the strength of love. Amen.

____________________________________

Spiritual Practice

Honoring the Ache | from The Rev. Cameron Trimble at Piloting Faith

This week, choose one grief you’re carrying for the world. Name it clearly. Then, without trying to solve it or suppress it, spend 5–10 minutes each day simply sitting with it.

Place your hand on your heart. Breathe into the ache. Ask: What does this pain teach me about what I love?

Then, write one sentence each day that affirms that love—something you want to protect, preserve, or praise in this world.

Let your heartbreak become a compass.

Tags: Violence, Hope, Prayer, Rev Susan

Friends,

Yesterday, I preached on a difficult text in the Gospel of Luke, in which Jesus says, "I came not to bring peace, but division." His exasperation, anger, and impatience are on display. We often have strong reactions to texts in which God/Jesus seem angry or judgmental -- many of us have been taught to internalize those words as shame. Many of us have been taught that those words are precisely why you shouldn't bother with Christianity anyway. In the sermon, I asked listeners to consider why Jesus was so frustrated, why people seemed to react with division to his message of peace, and how we let our own frustration and anger be a guide for our participation in the way of love. I shared a spiritual practice (hat tip to David O'Fallon, who shared it with me a few weeks ago) that can help us connect with those feelings and perhaps use them as a compass. You can find it below.

To catch up on that and other recent sermons, click here.

Along with that practice of entering our impatience and anger, people of the way of Jesus get to claim a radical hope. As our bishop put it recently:

"As followers of Jesus and heirs of God’s promise to Abraham, our call in this moment is to stand in the face of that cynicism as people of outrageous, even laughable, hope. Our call is to help lift heads hung heavy by the weight of death, injustice, and suffering, that we might all consider the stars, and make a choice to cling to nothing more, and nothing less, than the promise, most fully revealed in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, that love’s power to bring in God’s perfect reign exceeds even their seemingly endless number. Can we live in this moment with Sarah’s defiant joy, Abraham’s absurd hope, and a fierce commitment to God’s better way, anchored in an unimaginably vast horizon of hope?"

You can read the rest of his message here.

Susan+

—Spiritual Practice
Honoring the Ache | from The Rev. Cameron Trimble at Piloting Faith

This week, choose one grief you’re carrying for the world. Name it clearly. Then, without trying to solve it or suppress it, spend 5–10 minutes each day simply sitting with it.

Place your hand on your heart. Breathe into the ache. Ask: What does this pain teach me about what I love?

Then, write one sentence each day that affirms that love—something you want to protect, preserve, or praise in this world.

Let your heartbreak become a compass.

Tags: anger, Judgement, Rev Susan

Friends,

Last Sunday, I preached on Jesus' story of the lucky farmer whose grain harvest exceeds his ability to store it. He decides to build bigger barns, store his harvest, and then kick back, relax, and enjoy life. "You fool!" God says to him, in Jesus' parable. Real security is not about our wealth or our possessions. Real security is to be found in God and in the webs of interdependence, of trust and reciprocal giving, that we find in generous community. Real security is “what we long for but cannot ever purchase – being valued for your own unique gifts, earning the regard of your neighbors for the quality of your character not the quantity of your possessions, what you give, not what you have." (Robin Wall Kimmerer, in The Serviceberry) You can read more about this book in a MPR interview with the author.

Jesus invites us out of the economy of scarcity and competition and into an economy of gift and celebration (check out the parables about the lost coin, the dinner party with guests from the highways and hedges...). We told a story from Robin Wall Kimmerer's latest book, The Serviceberry, to illustrate the different mindset that gift economy offers.

To catch up on that and other recent sermons, click here.

Susan+

Tags: scarcity, abundance, God's Economy, Rev Susan

Friends,

Here is the prayer we opened our worship service with on Sunday.

God of shalom, we lift up this city and state and country.
We are awash in fear and hatred and violence, and we long for the healing and hope and justice only you can offer.
We pray for Melissa and Mark Hortman; receive them into the arms of your mercy.
We pray for John and Yvette Hoffman and their daughter, that they will be filled with the healing power of the Holy Spirit, that they may be able to recover and be raised up as signs of your love for the world.
We pray for the person who did these acts of violence, that he too will know the healing power of your justice.
We pray for all those tempted to violence, and for those who stoke the flames of hatred, that their hearts will be turned to your way of love.
And we pray for those who serve in positions of public trust in our legislature and everywhere, that in the midst of such fear, your love will give them the courage to continue in their duties with integrity and to press on with yet more courage toward your dream of love for this hurting world.
We ask all this in the name of the One whose way calls us to resilient, defiant, embodied, joyful love, even and especially in the midst of grief and destruction, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.


I hope to see you this coming Sunday, June 22, when we celebrate Campus Ministry Sunday. With a sermon from Steve Mullaney (Chaplain and Executive Director of the University Episcopal Community), we'll wonder together how our baptismal promises call us to support young adults in all kinds of life transitions.

See you in church!
Susan+

Tags: Rev Susan, Violence, Justice, Healing

Friends,

Last Sunday, we baptized eight (!) young people, we prayed for Morris+ as he steps into retirement from being the deacon assigned at Grace Episcopal Church, we celebrated Linnea's graduation, we had a parade of birds, there was a fabulous anthem from some of our younger singers -- it was a day full of the Holy Spirit! You can listen to Morris' sermon here.

We're going to need to keep following where that Holy Spirit is leading. In a letter to the whole church today, our Presiding Bishop says, "At its best, our church is capable of moral clarity and resolute commitment to justice. I believe we can bring those strengths to bear on this gathering storm. Churches like ours, protected by the First Amendment and practiced in galvanizing people of goodwill, may be some of the last institutions capable of resisting the injustice now being promulgated. That is not a role we sought—but it is one we are called to... We are finding ways to respond as Christians to what we see happening around us," the Most Rev. Sean Rowe said. "In short, we are practicing institutional resistance rooted not in partisan allegiance, but in Christian conviction." The Presiding Bishop was speaking specifically of the new travel bans and unwarranted deployment of military personnel in Los Angeles. Alongside those challenges, today, some of our fellow followers of the way of Jesus have voted to turn their energies toward banning marriage equality.

In this Pride Month, and in this season in our city and our country, practicing Jesus' way of resilient, defiant, embodied, joyful love has never been more important. Read on for a few ways you can put your faith into practice.

See you in church!
Susan+

Tags: Pride Month, Rev Susan, First Amendment, Resistance, Marriage

Friends,

Last Sunday, Dr. Marion Larson preached for us on the story in John's Gospel about Thomas. She shared a remarkable insight with us -- Thomas may have believed that, in his abandonment of Jesus before the crucifixion, he was the one who betrayed Jesus. From Thomas' perspective, his choices and fears separated him from the rest of the grieving, fearful disciples. How does he find his way back to his friends, his faith, his Lord? Listen to Marion's sermon from last Sunday here.

Lay leadership in the spiritual life of our congregation is a strength at Grace Episcopal Church. From the Healing Prayer team that gathers once a month and prays at the back of the church on Sunday mornings, to the Centering Prayer practice here each Wednesday at 5:30pm, to the adults leading Godly Play with our youngest members, lay (non-ordained) leaders create a shared culture of discipleship at Grace.

We're deepening that culture here. Marion and Dave Larson are both participating in the two-year Lay Preaching Training Institute offered by our diocese. With studies of Scripture and sermon-craft, this program helps lay preachers open the Gospels with pastoral, prophetic, and theological wisdom. Similarly, a team of four members from Grace are participating in the three-year Transforming Hearts program offered by the Episcopal House of Prayer. With in-person overnight retreats, monthly meetings, and personal practice, participants will learn contemplative spiritual practices that they can bring back and teach in our congregation. Dave Carpenter, Jake Fischer, Kathleen Anderson-Wyman, and Diane Barnett are the team from GEC, and I'm participating in a related pilot program as well.

I preached on Easter Sunday that we can find courage to practice the way of Jesus from four touchstones: Time spent with Jesus, deep connection to others on the way, humble service, and remembering the resurrection. (Catch my sermon from Easter Day here.) Lay leaders at GEC are spending time with Jesus through these programs, deepening our shared capacity for courage and action. Alleluia!

See you in church!
Susan+

Tags: Thomas, Rev Susan, Easter

Friends,

In yesterday's sermon, I preached about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Jesus and his followers would have known that another procession was entering Jerusalem in the days before Passover. Pontius Pilate's imperial motorcade, with centurions and chariots and soldiers, came into the city around the Passover to ensure that the holiday, celebrating the escape of the Hebrews from another oppressive regime, didn't repeat itself. So Jesus' demonstration, with a king on a donkey and followers shouting about peace, was more than a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm. It would have been a demonstration calculated to evoke a response from the governing authorities. You can watch the sermon here.

If you're curious to learn more about this reading of Palm Sunday, I recommend The Last Week: What the Scriptures Really Teach about Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem, by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.

And now, we're in Holy Week: the most sacred days of the Christian year. You can see all the details for our Holy Week services on our website calendar .

If you can't join us in person, I invite you to take time each day to read the texts for worship. Walking with Jesus to the cross, with all of the beauty and violence in that story, is one way we can build our own courage to practice the way of Jesus today.

See you in church!

Susan+

Tags: Palm Sunday, Rev Susan

Readers Respond to Last Week's Question: Crisis or Opportunity?

I've heard from many of you in response to my post last week, and I have shared some of those responses (with permission) with the parish through our weekly email.

What did we discover?

We are not a politically uniform congregation. While some of us are deeply distressed by the moves of the current administration, others see necessary reforms. The Episcopal Church holds dear the notion that we don't all have to agree with each other on politics nor on the finer points of theology. The Episcopal Church also holds dear the notion that religion is political; our faith should impact the way we speak, live, and act in the world. So we don't all have to agree; in a deeply divided nation, seeing and hearing each other's hopes and fears is itself an act of faith in the God whose dream of Beloved Community continues to inspire us.

My pastoral goals in sharing these writings are:

To help us see ourselves: How are people feeling and responding to political circumstances? Know each other is part of the work of Christian community; it's essential to compassion and care and accompanying each other as we practice the way of Jesus.

To raise each other's voices as pastoral care for each other. There will likely be something below that resonates with you. In the midst of change, connection is one way to break isolation and build our faith and courage.

To build our capacity for curiosity when we disagree. Perhaps there was something I reported in my email that doesn't resonate with you. How might you honor the dignity of every human being by bringing curiosity to viewpoints you disagree with?

Tags: politics, Division, compassion, curiosity, Rev Susan

Friends,

Last weekend, the Rev. Larry Bussey preached for us. “When our love and our trust get pointed in the wrong direction, we pay a price.” Larry invited us to hear the blessings and the woes we read from the Gospel of Luke as if Jesus were speaking directly to us, and to claim “the triumph of love in the face of the lust for power and control.” You can watch the sermon here. Larry's sermon laid out the bewilderment many of us are feeling in these days.

Our Pastoral Care team discussed it this morning—it feels like a mass spiritual crisis for many of us.

My hunch—grasping in the dark here—is that many folks, especially white moderates and progressives, are feeling disoriented by the seeming loss of something we've taken for granted: stable, multicultural democracy. Those of us who feel like the kingdom of God aligns best with the Democratic Party platform are stuck: how do we live faithfully now? We feel responsible to do something. But there's too much to do, too many fronts to act on, and we aren't sure how to determine what our 'lane' is. Powerlessness and despair can ensue. That's my hunch.

Does that 'spiritual crisis' language resonate with you?

I'd love to hear from you about it. Email me: Does this moment in our homes, cities, workplaces and country feel like a spiritual crisis? How so? Is there spiritual opportunity here? What might the Holy Spirit be up to in the midst of all this? What happens when you pray about it? What kind of prayer practices are helping you see your way (or God's way?) through?

As you ponder these questions: Remember that you are deeply, unendingly loved by the God who triumphs over evil, death, and despair.

In the name of Jesus,
Susan+

Tags: spiritual crisis, politics, Rev Susan

Friends,

Yesterday, some of the youngest members of Grace Episcopal Church preached the Gospel for us. You can watch the video here. I'm grateful for the leadership of our young people who offered their voices and interpretations and movement to preach the Good News today, and to the adults who supported them in the process!

In the midst of the onslaught of executive orders, in the midst of Project 2025 playing out before our eyes, in the midst of climate catastrophe and all our civic and personal fears and disasters, we got to see yesterday morning a small group of faithful people interpret the Gospel and invite us into the dance. We talk here often about resilient, defiant, embodied, joyful love. Dance is just about as perfect a practice of that kind of love as we could come up with: Showing up in our bodies, with defiant joy, resiliently committing to trust in God and to share love despite the fear and despair that we might feel. Keep on dancing with the Holy Spirit these days, friends.  
Peace, Susan+

By yourself you’re unprotected.
With a friend you can face the worst.
Can you round up a third?
A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped.
Ecclesiastes 4:12

Tags: Dance, Love, Rev Susan

Friends,

Before last Sunday's Annual Meeting, I preached about Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, who went to President Lincoln to ask for mercy for the Dakota warriors, who had been condemned to death en masse. You can watch the sermon here. I previewed a bit of where we're going in 2025 in that sermon as well!

Looking back at our history matters, because it helps us get some perspective on the present. As the new presidential administration has released so many executive orders designed to reshape the United States government, many people are left feeling bewildered, to say the least.

It makes me think of the story in 1 Kings 19, in which Elijah, reeling, flees for his life from the pursuit of his enemies, and hides in a remote cave in the wilderness, and waits for a word from God.

Now there was a great wind,
so strong that it was splitting mountains
and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord,
but the Lord was not in the wind,
and after the wind an earthquake,
but the Lord was not in the earthquake,
and after the earthquake a fire,
but the Lord was not in the fire,
and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
When Elijah heard it,
he wrapped his face in his mantle
and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
1 Kings 19:11-13

Environmental chaos, actual wildfires, the foundation-shaking experience of personal health issues and losses, and the wildfire of political upheaval: all of these catastrophes are present, in some way, in our lives. And the political strategy of 'flooding the zone' is expertly designed to destabilize people so that they are afraid, paralyzed, and reactive to those literal and metaphorical winds, earthquakes, and fires.

How might we find the still point, the quiet, the silent space in which to hear the voice of God? What kind of practices of prayer, what grounding in community and faith, what discernment of action will help you recognize the voice of God in the midst of chaos?

The God who spoke out of the silence and chaos of Creation, the God who was courageously silent in trial before state-sponsored execution, the God whose wind and flame broke over the earliest Christians and breathes in us now, is present in the midst of the noise and fear. We, like Elijah, get to find times of retreat and stillness in order to let our souls be nourished by that sacred, spacious quiet.

Peace,
Susan+

Tags: chaos, stillness, Elijah, Rev Susan, Bishop Whipple, Dakota People