The Parish

HUMANKIND | Loafing Around | Aaron Holbrough

The hope of the world is not that God gives up on human kind and fixes everything without us. The hope of the world is that God refuses to abandon us…and keeps working through ordinary people.

HUMAN KIND | Layer Cake | Jan Hux

At the wedding in Cana, Jesus gives us a picture of how to be kind in a deeply human situation.

HUMAN KIND | Be Both | Aaron Holbrough

I wonder if the opening chapter of Genesis didn't tell us that Humanity was created in the image of God, we would have ever had the courage to look for it.

READ THE LAST CHAPTER | Jan Hux

What do we do when a "Herod" seems to threaten the very fabric of our lives? We may find it helpful to remember how the story will end!

SLIM PICKINGS | Steve Kennedy

Slim pickings. Two Psalms, three poems and one sermon.

NOW | Aaron Holbrough

We often live our lives vicariously in a different tense, our bodies are in the present, but our minds are rehearsing a future or replaying a past, rarely staying in the moment where is within reach.

AFTER | Aaron Holbrough

In some ways, putting Christmas away is more difficult that getting it out.

ADVENT WEEK 4 | Making room for each other | Jan Hux

Mary believed what the angel had told her but no one else seemed to. She felt terribly alone until Elizabeth made room for her and created a space that was healing for both of them. 

ADVENT WEEK 3 | Making room for peace | Aaron Holbrough

When your desire to run is outmatched by your desire to stay, a beautiful kind of peace begins to appear. A peace that doesn't need outcomes to exist, it just needs the presence of God.

ADVENT WEEK 2 | Making room for mystery | Jan Hux

When Zechariah confronted a mystery that didn't fit into the tight and tidy quarters of his faith, he become overwhelmed with fear.  Mary’s more flexible faith allowed her to sit with the mystery and to ponder it rather than run away from it.

ADVENT WEEK 1 | Making room for story | Aaron Holbrough

We cannot begin Advent with angels and wise men and choirs. We cannot start where the tinsel and glitter is. We have to begin small, quiet, and unnoticed. We have to begin the way the story grew in Mary. The way it still grows in us.

What if we prayed like this | Jan Hux

Set prayers and liturgy can feel stiff and impersonal if they are not part of our tradition but they may hold unexpected riches.

More trouble than water | Aaron Holbrough

A new life iwth an old mindset isn't freedom-it's a more comfortable prison.

Troubling the waters | Steve Kennedy

Jesus stirs the troubled waters of our lives with a question that heals more deeply than any answer ever could.

Don't Worry | Jan Hux

 When we are stressed, being told "don't worry!" can feel at best insensitive. But what if we see it as an invitation rather than a critique?

Five Dollar Prayers | Aaron Holbrough

It’s strange how God meets us in the moments we often think are proof of His absence.

GOD'S WISH LIST | Jan Hux

If what mattered to God mattered to us, we might just realize what matters.

Asleep in the shape of God | Aaron Holbrough

The stories that we water, and the moments that we nurture are the ones that grow and shape the garden of our lives.