We Can’t Breathe
Joanne Gallardo
We can’t breathe. I realize the strangeness of me saying that. In our current context, many of us are free from the worry of having someone’s knee crushing our neck, of being shot in our own home, or having the police called on us for something as simple as birdwatching. In that sense, many of […]
Reflections of the Way Life Used to Be
Joanne Gallardo
I’ve spent the last few weeks running away from my reflection. I’m talking about my literal reflection and metaphorical reflection. Any haircuts or personal grooming habits have sort of gone out the window given that Zoom doesn’t produce the sharpest image of ourselves. My lowered levels of vanity is probably a good thing. But I’ve […]
When Every Day is Good Friday
Joanne Gallardo
I always feel conflicted about Palm Sunday. We go from celebrating the entry of Christ into Jerusalem to a week of thinking about Easter dinners, baked goods, and dyed eggs to Good Friday. I feel that “Good Friday” is always a bit of a misnomer. While Jesus’ resurrection can certainly be labeled “good,” there’s really […]
Just as I am
Joanne Gallardo
As I have said in previous sermons, I love angry Jesus. As an Enneagram 8 (and if you’re wondering about the Enneagram, just wait, because we have a Sunday School series starting up this week about it), I see so much of myself in angry Jesus. Most of this stems from my “Am I the […]
Empathy, Vulnerability, and Immanuel
Joanne Gallardo
Back when I worked as a case manager, Brene Brown came into my consciousness with her work on empathy. Empathy was talked about so much in our social work circles, in fact, that we often made jokes about it. Empathy is a learned skill, we were told. Empathy is learning another’s world view. As Brene […]
Stars, Signs and Salvation
Joanne Gallardo
We and the church have both, collectively, made it another year. While technically the new decade starts in 2021 people are talking about this year, 2020, as a brand-new page in our history. One of the many big things about 2020 is that it’s an election year, a big one. In a few months, and […]
Are we there yet?
Joanne Gallardo
I can’t get enough of apocalyptic Christianity. I think this may be about the fact that the Bible says that the day and the hour of the end of days is unknown, and yet so many people are so anxious about it they predict it. And while that sort of “end-times” prophecy may seem to […]
#blessed
Joanne Gallardo
Blessed. Or bless-ed. We use this word a whole lot. We throw it around as easily and as quickly as we do “awesome” or “fantastic.” If you follow #blessed on Instagram, you’ll find 117 million posts! If you follow #blessed with the emoji of two hands giving a high five which 9 out of 10 […]
From Scarcity to Abundance
Joanne Gallardo
If I mention “The Fyre Festival,” how many of you know what I’m talking about? The Fyre festival was supposed to be the best music festival on the planet. For thousands of dollars, you could hop on a private jet to Pablo Escobar’s island, rent out a fancy villa, listen to hot musical groups while […]
Good Grief
Joanne Gallardo
I took a brief break from the Lectionary for this week and decided instead to focus on the story of Lazarus. I hesitated doing so, wondering if I was the only one particularly attached to grief lately. However, 2 things happened a few weeks ago as well as this past week. Deb Detweiler was mentioned […]
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