“My fellow Episcopalians, our churches have beautiful facades that proclaims all people are welcome to come and worship inside, regardless of who they may be. Yet, so many people enter our doors, believing that to be true, only to learn, from things that are said to them, the way certain comments are phrased, that they’re not truly able to bring their whole selves to worship in this congregation.”

“Now, in reading today’s Gospel in commemoration of Martin Luther, one could easily fall into thinking that the “pruning” and “casting into the fire” that’s being referred to here is about tossing heretics and apostates into the flames of hell.”

“Those who would stop, reflect upon their changed context, and realize that perhaps the spirit of the law means something new in our new context, are tasked with drawing lines from one context to another, reaching theological and ethical conclusions about how to implement the spirit of a command offered in a different time and place.”

“I do not have any special insight into how this all can be fixed, but I do know that we must mourn the loss of our international political standing, the power that we were so accustomed to when dealing with both partners and adversaries, and the pride we held in being an example for other nations to follow.”

“Here in the story of Hannah, we see how this God who performs the great reversal on the worldly fate of us creatures has been doing so not just since Jesus’ time, but since the early days of Jewish history. And try as I might to convince myself otherwise, I know that I am one who Hannah describes as ‘full.'”