St. Ed Said

Most years, I come to Good Friday having spent hours with different texts, having planned out services with Tami and Chip. We sit with our options, with the days of the Triduum, we turn it over and over, and look for a theme to push. This year has been different. The projects have piled up. My health has asked things of me I wasn't expecting, we’ve spent more time in the Urgency or Emergency Room than last year combined, I think. And if I'm honest, some of the things I was most looking forward to this Lenten season, our Labyrinth Stations of the Cross, Fish Fries at the Legion, didn't land the way I had hoped. I have been busy in a way that has left me less able to think, imagine and plan, less able to sit with things, less able to find the quiet I rely on. I tell you this not because my schedule is interesting, or for you to feel sorry for me, but because I suspect I am not alone in that experience. These last three months have been exhausting in ways that are hard to full...

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday, I attended the Palm Sunday, Faith In Action event. It was a lot of fun, and quite profound. There are some pictures below you can take a look at. The Episcopalians showed up, that is for sure, everywhere I turned I saw someone from Trinity, St Mark's Cathedral, St John's, from all over the metro area. Our Bishop was one of the last speakers, and his voice was particularly unique. Several speakers preached the days sermon, or a portion of it, others repeated the lines we have all heard over and over again about the injustices being pressed upon so many of our immigrant neighbors. Bishop Loya, however, talked about our first Bishop: Henry Benjamin Whipple, and how his name is on the building where most immigrants and other US Citizens were arrested were taken. It reminded me of that saying I have heard so much in our Diocese, "While others were killing the Indigenous people, Bishop Whipple was ordaining them." I stumbled across Seth Godin again...

FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE Lessons and Psalm Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm 145 Acts 2:42-47 John 18:33-37 The Collect Almighty God, who has restored our human nature to heavenly glory through the perfect obedience of our Savior Jesus Christ: Enliven in your Church, we pray, the passion for justice and truth, that, like your servant Frederick Denison Maurice, we may work and pray for the triumph of the kingdom of Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. From Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2024 In the same year that Karl Marx declared religion to be the “opiate of the people,” Frederick Denison Maurice wrote, “We have been dosing our people with religion when what they want is not this but the living God.” Like Marx, Maurice wanted to solve the questions of our complex society; unlike Marx, he called for a radical, but non-violent, reform, by the renewal of “faith in a God who has redeemed mankind, in whom I may vindicate my rights as a man.”  Mauric...

Many of us have experienced talking to a friend about a restaurant or type of car and then later see those very things show up on our social media feeds. Someone or something is always listening. Artificial Intelligence collects our personal data from our online activities, social media interactions and our user preferences. AI then analyzes this data and identifies patterns in our consumer behavior. This information is used by companies to create targeted advertisements that resonate specifically to us. In some ways it is good, I guess. I only see what I like, what I mention and what I linger over on FaceBook. Everyone else is only seeing what they are interested in too. We each have tailor-made marketing. You see Nike and I see Birkenstocks. I see ads for gray-covering hair dye and my husband sees videos for metal detectors and gold panning equipment. It is a bit creepy, but I don’t pan for gold, so I am glad I don’t get those commercials. (The fact our personal data is up for sale i...

The Rev. Aron Kramer Palm Sunday, 2026 Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Matthew 21:1-11 Yesterday, we ended up staying in White Bear Lake for the No Kings protest. It was amazing, but as we were chanting and singing, a man drove by with a passenger leaning out his window, yelling at the top of his lungs: Only Jesus is King! I was with some friends who are mostly unchurched, and they asked what I thought. My first response was that he was a day too early, tomorrow, today, is the day he needs to be riding down the street proclaiming Jesus is King. But then my friends asked about Palm Sunday, and I told them: Jesus never wanted to be King, never wanted to function as a King, never behaved as a King. Even this day that we celebrate year after year was not an effort to make himself a King. It was a moment where Jesus was making fun of the empire, making fun of those who desire significant power and prestige. Jesus never wanted to be King. Jesus wanted something else. Which le...

I have been listening to Harold Kushner's book, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" while I drive into work each day. In the beginning of the book, he quotes a Rabbi, I can't remember who exactly as I write this, but the quote is this: "The language of God is human beings." When we have pain, struggle and strife in our lives, it is people who show up to care for us. It is people who try to support us and share their empathy. This is a very incarnational expression of faith and understanding that I think I find to be core to my own ministry. Last week, we listened and we listened and we listened as Chip read the miles long Gospel story of Lazarus being raised. But it is important to note that when Jesus heard Lazarus had died, Jesus went directly to be with Martha and Mary. He showed, in his actions, what it was to be part of the language of God. In his approach he was chastised and told that had be been there, Lazarus would not have died. This sentiment ...