Published Work

These are other things I've written, but don't fall under coursework.  Some inspired by my classes, some things I've seen or experienced.  Sort of a public journal.  

Holy Week Reflections 2024

Three reflections I wrote for Holy Week for my CPE site, Glade Run Lutheran Services.

Maundy Thursday

When we read about Jesus washing his disciples' feet, it can feel weird, and honestly, it was weird then!  The weirdness now is that we don’t live in the same time and place as Jesus, where having a servant wash a guest's feet was normal.  Modern footwear and sidewalks keep our toes relatively clean, and if I went over to a friend’s home and they asked me to have my feet washed, I would be quite confused.  But we have to remember that in Jesus’ time, they didn’t have the same practices, their shoes didn’t protect their feet as well from the elements, and they would have traveled on dusty, muddy roads with all kinds of surprises.  So, it was common to have servants wash the feet of guests.  What was weird for them was Jesus choosing to wash their feet.  As their teacher and leader, washing feet would have been considered below him.  In this moment, Jesus chose to make himself an equal and care for others.

This makes me wonder what the modern equivalent of foot washing is. How do we see people serving each other in our daily lives? How has Jesus called each of us to “love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another?”  What weird and unexpected things are we doing in the world?

Good Friday

This year’s Good Friday also marks the one-year anniversary of a traumatic experience for me.  On March 29th, 2023 my children’s school was one of many Pennsylvania schools targeted that day in a school shooting hoax.  While no lives were lost, we experienced 90 minutes of terror, I will never forget hearing my 9-year-old messaging me through his smartwatch - “Mom, there is an intruder, this is not a drill.” Our community lost its innocence and sense of safety that day.  Our children learned that a school shooting might actually happen here and that while helpful, intruder drills don’t guarantee safety.  We also learned that no one knows quite what to do after a hoax because everything turned out to be fine despite the trauma we experienced.  Our community’s anguish, anxiety, and loss of security became discredited by our neighboring communities. We were told we needed to get over it and that we were fine.  How often has the world negated our pain?  Our world likes to skip experiencing Good Friday, if we tell ourselves everything is fine, we can go straight to celebrating Easter.

Yet this is exactly why we need Good Friday. We may be pushed to “get over” the pain and move into joy. Instead, we need to remember that we have a God who knows what it's like to suffer. Good Friday reminds us of our God's humanity: Jesus was a man and felt pain, loneliness, and more on the cross.  Jesus didn’t get to skip over his pain to get to Easter, he had to endure it.  Good Friday reminds us that our pain is valid, and God sees and suffers with us in that moment.  

Easter

In college, I was in a long-distance relationship, so every two months I would figure out how to get from Pittsburgh to New Jersey on a limited budget.  The best solution was to find a friend or friendly acquaintance (or several) who wanted to visit their family and were willing to split the gas and tolls.  On one trip I was particularly nervous because my friend had a brilliant idea - she was going to surprise her family with a visit that weekend.  I wondered what would happen if her parents weren’t home or had plans, could I leave her at an empty house?  Luckily my concerns were in vain, not only were her parents home, and they were ecstatic. They celebrated her homecoming.  I was so glad I had the chance to be part of that moment of genuine surprise.  Twenty years later I can still hear her Dad's yells of surprised joy when she walked into the room, and the hugs, embrace, and love in the moment.  

When I read Mary’s reaction of “Rabbouni!” in the garden, I imagine a similar moment of genuine and joyful surprise filled the air. When we are in grief, loneliness, and longing, it can seem like joy is out of reach. Yet God still finds unexpected ways to surprise us.  If it feels like hope is lost, we can remember Mary’s joy on Easter.  Jesus not only comes back, but his actions free us from the things that ensnare us from fully experiencing the joy and love that the Trinity offers us. 

Happy Easter!

Authentic Diversity and Justice Newsletter - October 2023

I had the opportunity to share a reflection for ADHD Awareness month in my synod's ADJ newsletter.

https://mailchi.mp/d0b37f9b4403/adj-october-newsletter?e=aba6572bfe

Authentic Diversity and Justice Newsletter - September 2023

I had the opportunity to share a reflection about the Johnstown Banishment.

https://us2.campaign-archive.com/?u=79dcaa2fcb5382a6c602613cc&id=3023ef219e 

Authentic Diversity and Justice Newsletter - July 2023

I had the opportunity to share a reflection and create some resources for Disability Pride month in my synod's ADJ newsletter.

https://www.swpasynod.org/adjnews/july-2023-newsletter 

Around The River Parish Bulletin - April 2nd, 2023

Our school district received a hoax school shooting call on Wednesday, March 29th.  For 90ish minutes we lived in the reality/hell that our children were in danger.  It was the most terrified and powerless I've ever felt.  This was a piece I wrote the next morning for our congregation.

Each morning before school I pray for my kids, “God bless you and keep you safe.” There’s always a what if, what if school isn’t safe. 

This past Wednesday our community experienced that what if. While we had heard about active shooter situations, we hadn’t experienced it. Fortunately, the calls about Hopewell High School and Junior High School were a hoax, but it didn’t make the emotions we felt any less real. This week we were confronted with the possibility of losing people in our community we love. I held my children a little tighter that day, and listened to things about Minecraft, what lessons started at school that morning, and why do Minions love bananas so much. I also listened to how lockdown was fine, but “I didn’t get to hide in the spot I found last week when we practiced” or “today my teacher played some really fun games with us while we hid” or “I had to crouch down behind a coat for like an hour.” 

Feelings are raw right now, we are distinctly aware of the brokenness of our world, and that despite our best efforts we can’t promise anyone safety. In Luke 13, Jesus says “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Today, I am willing to crawl under his wings of protection, I need that rest and security. At this moment, I might not be ready for all that God promises, but I can find comfort knowing that in these times of trauma we are being held by God with the same tightness that I held my kids on Wednesday. 

Lenten Challenge 2023

The SWPA synod's Lenten Challenge for this year: https://www.swpasynod.org/stories/lent2023

Moses (for Around The River Parish Bulletin) -January 22nd, 2023

Those of you who have been at House of Prayer awhile may have noticed I live with an Old Testament scholar. While he may only be 7, when he takes you on a dive, it gets pretty deep.  One of his favorite stories as a preschooler was of Moses, so we’ve spent a lot of time there and there’s a lot to think about in that story beyond what the movie Prince of Egypt and Sunday School has taught us.

When I first started reading the Bible, I was in a faith community that leaned more toward inerrancy (the Bible does not have errors.) As I learned more about the Bible and its original oral tradition, and acknowledged the childhood game of Telephone, the idea of inerrancy couldn’t make sense to me. I could believe the Bible is divinely inspired, but first shared imperfectly by word of mouth, then written down by imperfect people, then imperfectly translated, and then read by us(also imperfect!) So what does all of this have to do with the Moses story? 

You may remember that when the Hebrews left Egypt, Pharaoh's heart hardened and he changed his mind. In Exodus 14:8, “The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh…” What are we to do with passages like this? If we believe that God is all love and goodness, does God harden one’s heart? Does God destroy one person to save another? Can those two ideas be congruent?  Or is it possible that our imperfect history of sharing the Exodus story made a misstep? 

We all have met people whose hearts are hardened, and we have all been those people. God never told us to harden our heart, but people did - maybe we were told to toughen up, to be perfect, or are just trying to fit in, but that wasn’t God’s idea. When we look back to our Moses story, what did Pharaoh's hardened heart bring him? Loss of his own son, destruction of his kingdom, and disgrace.

This year I ask you to join me in taking moments to reflect where your heart has been hardened.  While there are no real instructions on how to soften a heart, I think if we turn to God, we will be led to our own customized path by God.  I love to think about how much more beautiful our congregation could be if we spent 2023 letting go of the things that could destroy us and approaching life with a softer heart. 

Preparations (for Around The River Parish bulletin) - December 4th, 2022

For those who know me best, they know patience is not my strong suit - usually the shortest line is the best choice for anything, and a microwave just doesn’t cook food fast enough.  So this whole notion of waiting in certain faith seasons is not my thing. While I do enjoy the chocolates in an Advent calendar, waiting for Christmas takes too long.  So is there another way we can look at Advent for those of us who are impatient?  One of my professors recently shared that Advent is about joyfully preparing, and I loved this phrasing - I can prepare much better than I can wait.  Which leaves me pondering, how can we joyfully prepare our church?  

As we see a culture that pushes us to segregate, divide, and ostracize, how do we welcome our neighbors to the church?  Have we made space for them, in whatever season of life they are in?  How do we make it clear that our church is a place where all sides come together and work together for a bigger picture?  We have two options: we can wing it or we can joyfully prepare for their arrival.  While winging it seems like the easier option, we have to consider if it is truly welcoming - do you want to come over for dinner to a table where homework has been pushed aside, there are crumbs at your feet, and dishes everywhere, or to a space where the host has prepared for you?  With the first dinner, you may feel welcomed, but you may also feel like an inconvenience.  Instead, let’s use this new church year to joyfully prepare our churches to become places of belonging, and consider what things we can do for new and returning people. Here are a few suggestions:

• Welcome all kids (and their families!) - the shy ones, the rambunctious ones, the defiant ones, and cheerful ones.  Let expectations of past generations go, and just love them as God made them.

• Supporting our Reconciling In Christ (RIC) efforts, our Parish is the RIC process, meaning that we will be recognized as a parish that affirms that the LGBTQIA+ community is loved and accepted by our churches.

• The pandemic gave all of us time to consider what was important to us, take the time to learn where your neighbors’ hearts are and how you can support them.

• Find media that will help you better understand how we can love our neighbors of different races, ethnicities, gender, sexuality, ability and more.  It's important for us to acknowledge that the world doesn’t treat everyone fairly, but that our churches can be places that create equity.

• Be ready, as we work towards an inclusive church, it means change.   Think of how you can joyfully embrace things that make it easier for others to worship with you.

Lord, in this season of Advent, we ask that you help us joyfully prepare.  Open our hearts to embrace others, accept change, and use our individual gifts to support your kin-dom.  Give us the wisdom to know the next steps, and the strength to take our parish, church, and selves to where we are called to be.  Help us grow in understanding and acceptance, and help us when we struggle and feel conflicted on what the next step is.  We ask that you bless our congregations and leadership as we move forward in building an inclusive community.  Amen.  

ADHD/Dyslexia (for Around The River Parish bulletin) - October 23rd, 2022

When we read through the beginning of Genesis we learn how God created the birds, fish, vegetation, animals, and humans. We can also notice that God created a variety of each of these, in other contexts, we would call this biodiversity.  Each living thing has a place and purpose in this world, and all were called good by God.  Another type of diversity created by God is neurodiversity.  Neurodiversity is the term used to describe all the different types of brains God created, and all brains, like everything else created by God, are good.  This month, we get to celebrate two different types of brains - October is both Dyslexia Awareness and ADHD Awareness month.   

Dyslexia is when a person unexpectedly struggles with the processes involved in reading. People with Dyslexia are often creative, big picture thinkers, observant, and have strong narrative thinking.   ADHD is primarily a difference in attention regulation, and can present in three different way: Hyperactive (people who need a lot of physical input), Inattentive (people who are often considered daydreamers), and Combined Type (a mixture of Hyperactive and Inattentive.)  People with ADHD are often problem solvers, work well under pressure, are able to hyperfocus on a task, and love to brainstorm.  To be clear neither condition is caused by watching too much television, playing video games, poor diet, or bad parenting. 

Both of these neurotypes can struggle in our current world.  The design of many of our spaces and activities can cause them difficulty and anxiety; these things do not allow neurodivergent people to be who God designed them to be. For instance, a long lecture can leave someone with ADHD feeling trapped and restless, while for someone who is dyslexic feeling required to read out loud during Bible Study causes anxiety and stress.  Both ADHDers and Dyslexics hear more negative comments than neurotypical people, and can suffer from feeling like they’re never doing enough. It’s important for our churches to become a place of freedom, rest, and support for all. We also need to remember Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, without any qualifier of how that neighbor should be.  As our churches grow and move forward, it’s our opportunity to learn more about all the people in our community and how to include them.