Barefoot Theology

Pulling Weeds

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:32:00 +0000

Something we all learn soon or later, hopefully sooner, is that words have immense power. We shouldn't have to learn this; after all we're brought up on stories like the creation narrative; where God makes everything that is by speaking it into being! We read about the ultimate expression of God and call him "the Word." The list could go on and on, but somehow we still miss the boat. The words we use in our everyday lives shape the way we think and react, they built our world. I have...

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Theophany through my lens

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:45:00 +0000

A meditation on sea, sky, and mountain. For full album from our spring vacation to the Pacific Northwest, follow link.

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Connection & Relationship

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:32:00 +0000

The sun is bright and hot, the breeze moving softly. Shadow is warmed up, an athlete feeling good and stretching into his strength. He tests me like he does every ride, to find out where his limits are, just how much I'll demand. It isn't disobedience, it is a question. And for once I answer clearly, and we come to an understanding. I have begun to be able to hear those questions again, through my legs and seat and back and hands; I am beginning to remember how to answer them. Minutes...

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Violence and who we are

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:37:00 +0000

(Another hand written blog post this afternoon. Complete with errors and insertions. This is just how writing really works.)

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Sermon: I want to see!

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Josephine Robertson St Paul's Episcopal Church, Waco Easter 2C John 20:19-31 Still Doubting John Granville Gregory As a child I drove my parents to distraction with questions. Why do mosquitos buzz? Why do the stars twinkle? Why did Jesus die? How do you know that’ll make me sick? What will happen if… And often the explanations I got just weren’t enough. I wanted to know more, I wanted to see proof, I wanted to touch and taste. Perhaps my most used phrase was an impatient “I...

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Sermon: Maundy Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Last Supper by Bohdan Plasecki (This painting hangs in my office) Josephine Robertson St Paul's Episcopal Church Maundy Thursday John 13:1-17, 31b-35 March 28 2013 Come away with me for a bit. Away from the noise and the crowds. Away from the shops and the last minute preparations for the holiday. Out of the sun, the dust. Take a deep breath and climb the narrow steep stairs up to a rough old wood door. The noise of the city traffic, the needs of the day, the pressure of...

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Sermon: The scent of Love

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:51:00 +0000

The 5th Sunday of Lent, year C John 12:1-8 St Alban's Episcopal Church, Waco March 17, 2013 I'd like to ask you to go on a journey with me today. Come with me to a little village in the hills, a dusty sleepy town. People take care of each other here, they know each other. Come on into town, down the narrow little streets and stop at the door of a simple house with a gnarled olive tree shading the door. There are vegetables and flowers, all tumbled together in the garden. The sky is dark...

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Being Tolerant

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:01:00 +0000

Originally shared by the Huffington Post on Facebook, no artist attributed. The above photo began making the rounds of Facebook this morning. My progressive Christian friends immediately began to share, and like it. It does after all, seem pretty heart warming. Who wouldn't "like" a picture of four faiths peacefully sharing a nice cup of tea together. (Oh so British!) And yet, like so much about popular culture the whole thing falls apart under any sort of actual scrutiny. Where does...

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Sermon: Till the soil

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 22:34:00 +0000

Josephine Robertson Lent 3C Luke 13:1-9 St Paul's Episcopal Church, Waco, TX 3/3/2013 I am one of those people who is happiest with my hands in the soil. Especially in the spring, when the frost has just gone out of the ground, and the sun has just become warm again, and the whole world is waking up. There is nothing quite like the smell of just awakened earth, and all the first shoots of green peeking out of the ground. Nothing like the smell of wet, rich soil just waiting to erupt with...

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Lenten Meditation: Lift

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:55:00 +0000

The ways we lift one another up, simple or sublime. (Photo from Caritas Feast of Caring fundraiser. Caritas provides emergency food assistance to people in need. To donate: Caritas

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Lenten Meditation: Cover

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 03:14:00 +0000

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Lenten Meditation: See

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 22:05:00 +0000

It can be so easy to become imune to beauty, to miss the moments of the sublime all around us. I am reminded to look, to listen, to be present enough to really see.

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Lenten Meditation: Live

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 22:03:00 +0000

First flowers of spring showed themselves yesterday, the world turns back toward life. I was away at a vestry retreat yesterday so this is just being posted now, follow me on Instagram for instant photo updates.

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Lenten Meditation: Spirit

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 23:12:00 +0000

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Lenten Meditation: Love

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:57:00 +0000

When I met my future husband it took very little time for him to find out what made me tick, the things that made my soul sing. And each time one of them was revealed, sometimes with embarrassed trepidation on my part, it was met with the affirmation that anything that made me glow so happily was a good thing. This is love; to want to seek out the joy in another soul, to revel in that joy even when it is different from our own. My joy is the place where the solid earth meets the great...

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Lenten Meditation: Evil

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 03:30:00 +0000

The Light shown forth in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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Lent 7: Wonder

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 02:00:00 +0000

It is no surprise that we love them liquid eyes, velvet ears and forgiveness in fountains What is a wonder is they love us.

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The Lenten Elevator: Going Down!

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:06:00 +0000

Not long ago my husband and I spent the week before lent at the hospital, where my father-in-law was still in intensive care. Our family is full of doers. There is my husband the engineer and manager, his brother the businessman, and his other brother and sister who are lawyers. This is a group who gets stuff done. But as I discovered when I was a chaplain: the waiting room of the ICU is a place where all the doing stops and there is nothing but waiting. We came home to do the Ash Wednesday...

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Lent Day 6: World

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:39:00 +0000

This world often comes at us all too quickly. Slow down.

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Lent day 5: Settle

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 21:59:00 +0000

The theme today is settle, and while in some ways I think my sermon this morning was about exactly that, this is probably the only image a preacher could offer on a Sunday afternoon, warm old quilts for settling in for a nap. Lent is about discipline, and we often forget the flip side of that, rest and grace. For all our working will always be flawed, and we finite beings will never finish it all. We are called to rest and Sabbath, and to settle into the grace of God, who doesn't need us to...

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Sermon: First Sunday of Lent

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 21:45:00 +0000

Josephine Robertson St. Paul's Episcopal Church Deuteronomy 26:1-11 All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king. - JRR Tolkien Old words, for an old tale, told a thousand ways. Why do these words stir us? Why do they...

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Lent Day 3: See

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 22:39:00 +0000

We see only as we have trained our windows to everything, filtering through the curtains of our hope, and fear. Look again. (Posted a day late due to illness.)

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Lent 2: Return

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:26:00 +0000

Catty corner, canted sideways cracked and crazed by summer sun and winter wind; wandering. the call remains, close beside behind, before wherever we turn, the call to return. This Lent I will be doing a daily photo meditation following a set of prompts from the United Methodist church. Today's prompt: Return.

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Ash Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:51:00 +0000

(remember you are dust) The tender scrape of a sooty finger, marking me the way another did, once with oil, scented with the spice of new life. Gray smudges of the sort my mother scrubbed clean, until I discovered her worn thumb stained with the ash of life. Feel it, that outer sign of inner grace: the sacrament of dirt, that rains into my eyelashes and settles on my lips. (and to dust) All the world has...

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Lenten Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Josephine Robertson) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:43:00 +0000

It seems like we just celebrated Christmas, and yet here we stand at the doorstep of Lent. I'd like to offer a few resources or ideas for your lenten practice. Most of you probably already have a great many books on lent, and I've come across more than I could shake a stick at. Truly, trying would almost certainly cause my carpal tunnel to flair. So instead there are some ideas not bound between the covers of a book. I hope they will be helpful. The first is a project out of my diocese,...

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