I have been preaching on themes of preparation and how we welcome God. We've been looking at the story of God's arrival in the City of David, and how God lives, travels, and provides among us.

Church life in July always appear to be quiet, and to an extent it is. The number of us tuning in for worship has dipped as warm weather, family trips, and baseball games lure us out of doors and away from screens.

Thank you to all of our leaders and each of you who contribute and lead us in your own way. Each of you are a blessing, and what a blessing it is to be the church together.

The Musician Search Team has been hard at work distilling what they have heard from each of you about the future of music and arts at West End Church.

Happy Memorial Day, a day when our nation memorializes the brave souls who gave their life for our freedom.

There’s a new song calling your name. Can you hear it? Will you lend your voice and join the song of Creation for this day? I certainly hope so.

For our friends in Orthodox traditions, this is Easter Monday. That in global Christendom Easter comes not once but twice feels a good metaphor for resurrection itself.

As you know, we’re forming a Musician Search Team to work with our Interim Music Director, Paul Vasile, and me to discern the future of West End’s music and arts programming.

I am excited to introduce you to Paul Vasile, who has graciously agreed to be our Interim Music Director.

The time from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday can be one of the holiest weeks of the year, if you let it.

My, how time is moving differently these days. The clocks have sprung forward, the days are lengthening, and the daffodil sprouts are peeping out in Central Park. It is officially Spring, and I venture all of us have noticed the change of season and look forward to what is to come.

This week we begin our 40-day journey from ash to cross to life everlasting. The season of Lent this year comes to us when we are hopefully somewhere just passed the midpoint of our pandemic; it is also midway through this year’s Lent when we will mark the first anniversary of our quarantine. The journey from ash to cross to life everlasting is one each of us know deep in our bones these days. This journey is one we have walked together.

This week we begin our 40-day journey from ash to cross to life everlasting. The season of Lent this year comes to us when we are hopefully somewhere just passed the midpoint of our pandemic; it is also midway through this year’s Lent when we will mark the first anniversary of our quarantine. The journey from ash to cross to life everlasting is one each of us know deep in our bones these days. This journey is one we have walked together.

This Black History Month, we lift up two distinct traditions of Black excellence: Black church and sacred music, and Black women leaders. 

Today we lift up the memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and join our hearts with each other in the continuing struggle for racial justice across our country. Dr. King's legacy calls us to share a dream for the day when all may see the mountaintop God has in mind for us. It is also very much our prayer today.

Nine days stand between us and the inauguration of a president who promises to restore dignity and justice to the office of President of our United States. Six days ago the 45th president incited a racist mob's overtaking of the halls of our government and for the first time in our nation's history, the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capital. I can make no excuses for these racist, cowardly, unpatriotic acts: not for the leaders who incited them nor the people who enacted them.

This past week, in keeping with tradition, we festooned the exterior of our church building with boughs of evergreens, bright red bows, and a few very festive wreaths. We also hung new banners advertising our free food for all programs to the community and sharing the mission of our church with our neighborhood. We also created a community art project.

With hearts full of thanks, we have now turned our attention to the coming Light of the World. The season of Advent is a season of preparation, and though many of our preparations are very different this year, preparing is still the work of these Advent days.

This year, Thanksgiving will be new in many ways for many of us—smaller tables, fewer dishes to clean, Zoom calls as place holders for ever-longer overdue hugs. The thing about tradition, though, is that it adapts to meet us where we are.