Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up (1 Cor 8:1). I write and I preach to strengthen people's faith in love. Let’s face it, I write and preach to strengthen MY faith in love. Faith that you are not defined only by what you do or what you’ve done. But the WHOLE of you. Your experiences, your stories, are your wisdom. The more you tap into that wisdom the more you will discover and embrace who you are becoming.
I’ve tried to organize the posts - the lovely circles - by the topics that inform my preaching, coaching and teaching. I hope the experiences, stories, and wisdom shared here, prompt some supportive insights of your own.
All Articles
What Things?
I remember saying to myself as I stared at the altar, “Well, Arianne I think it’s official – I’m no longer Roman Catholic.”
That probably makes sense to some of you. You see, I was raised Roman Catholic. And while I had never been to a service like this before, I had certainly done my share of venerating.
Pep Talk for Pastors
The thing is my friend, you were made for such a time as this (cf. Esther). And you have exactly what you need to pastor and preach and plan and lead, right now.
Mitigating Anxiety
“The time is coming,” Jesus says in this Sunday’s gospel, “when you will worship in spirit and in truth.” If you look at Eugene Peterson’s translation in The Message, it reads, “But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.” (Jn 4:21-23)
Reimagining Birth
Several years ago I was prompted to try something a little different. I imagined the sermon as a creative exploration of Nicodemus, as a religious leader who wrestled with the doubts, disappointments and difficulties that have called me to seek out God with my questions in the quiet of night.
What Are You Giving Up?
Too often I hear people refer to Lent as a punitive season. A time for denying ourselves and bemoaning all the ways we aren’t good enough in our personal and spiritual lives. As if the purpose is to own up to all the ways we believe we are disappointing God.
Accusations
New Ways of Knowing
How often do we say something (I love you, I do, I accept, I will, I get it, etc.) but the reality of the words have not yet transformed our being? In my imaginings, Jesus the teacher gave some prayerful thought to what it would take to get Peter and the disciples to the next level. Why not? The Son of God was fully human, he wasn’t reading a script.
What’s Your Attitude?
Last summer I started taking a closer look at the objects I look at everyday. On the walls in my kitchen, my bedroom, my office. What surrounds me influences me. What I am taking in shapes my outlook.
What Do You Need to Unlearn?
When you unlearn something, it doesn’t leave you. We transcend and include. It is a process of evolving and maturing. It is, surprise, a process of becoming.
Shine, Sprinkle, Repeat!
When we use our words to connect with the hearts of the people we are preaching to we make room for light. Our unique saltiness is to be savored. It can inspire, restore and heal the soul.
Do You See This?
How we practice matters. We can use rituals to keep our blinders on. To believe that the ritual in and of itself is the purpose. Instead of the truth that the ritual is a pointer, a bridge, a way to make space.
We Are All Late Bloomers
Grief invites us to pay attention. This has been my experience. That was when I began to see this process of becoming. I don’t just mean when a person dies. I mean when by choice, or by circumstance, we accept something has ended. It has run its course. A relationship, a career, a part of our body. When we lean into letting go and soften our resistance to what must change.
What Makes You Click?
There had to have been some quality of Jesus that propelled those disciples to go and see what he was up to, or at least where he was staying. John the Baptist got them to pay attention.
What Story Do You Need to Share?
“You need to be more vulnerable. Do you know what I mean?”
Do I?! Ha! Yes, vulnerability is what I’m “certified” to teach! You’ve got to love the divine irony of the Universe. She is a comedian.
Change of Plans
The big events, the ones where there is a before and an after, rarely play out exactly as we anticipate. Because we are expert at creating future realities in our minds. Setting internal expectations and believing what we dream of and plan for will come to pass in the ways we imagine.
Epiphany
Curiosity does not always lead to joy immediately, but, eventually it will. It is how we discover who we are, what we want to do, what we’re surprised we can do. It is how we meet new people. It is why curiosity can be courageous.
Incarnate Words
God’s language is a force. It has power and is alive. The fourth evangelist uses holy speech to proclaim that the Word has gone forth towards God’s purpose. The purpose of bringing life and light into the world. A purpose that those of us in the world can choose to see or not. But regardless of what we choose we still have received grace upon grace.
Words – speech – bring forth incarnation. Language creates a reality.
Who Are You Accountable To?
As someone who constantly encourages people to give themselves permission, I still need to remember that encouragement is meant for me too.
Christmas
God’s life and our life are one life. This is the gift of Christmas. This unveiling of who we are is what enables us to shine our divine light, this little light of ours, in the world. You and I and all the people in those pews are the lights that shine in darkness for one another. In ordinary homes, and ordinary churches, through our incredibly wonderful, unique and ordinary lives.
God’s Faith in Our Resolve
You and I and the people we serve are part of a larger story. We have our resolve. We make our plans. We believe we are determining our future. But then, God breaks in. God shows us a sign on a road or in a dream. God asks us to walk towards people and communities it would be easier to walk away from. Because the circumstances present challenges that seem impossible to overcome.
