Stephen Colón

A view of a tiffany stained glass window with repeating scale-like tiles in a rainbow pattern, seen from below.

God and us

Sermons on Acts

Fruitcake and the family of God

Acts 10.9–48

It’s an imperfect analogy, but it makes me think about when I first started working here last summer and learned all about our practices around Dia de los Muertos and our favorite hymns and the hymns which were very much not our favorite and the parts of our order of service and prayers that were…
Read more: Fruitcake and the family of God
Bidirectional memory

Acts 1.6-11, 22-24

Día de los Muertos and All Souls Day are two holidays that occupy the same day on our calendars and share meanings that are quite similar, even if there’s an important demarcation point between the two. I think the Catholic writer Joel Schorn put it best when he talked about the two holidays as ones…
Read more: Bidirectional memory
May we be empty

John 14.8-17; Acts 2.1-18

In Christianity, we think of the guidance we get from God as coming from the Holy Spirit. And I wonder if our Christian ancestors are telling us, “you need to be open to receive. You need to make the choice to receive.” And when you do, you’ll be infectious. You’ll create a feeling of closeness…
Read more: May we be empty
The only way through is together

Luke 24.45–53; Acts 1:1–11

That God of unity sends, at maybe one of the scariest moments of the disciples’ lives, heavenly beings to be in companionship with the disciples. That relational God charges the disciples to stay together, waiting for the power of God to come upon them. And as we’ll discuss next week in the Pentecost story, when…
Read more: The only way through is together
What do you have to believe?

John 11.17–27; Acts 17.1–4,10–12

Maybe “I believe you can raise the dead” feels too heavy for Martha right now. And that’s where this week’s reading cuts off. A few verses later, Mary has an interaction with Jesus that’s somewhat different, but still does not end in her explicitly believing Jesus will raise her brother from the dead. We know…
Read more: What do you have to believe?
The shadows of sent-out ones

Matthew 22.23–33; Acts 5.12–16

At Bible Study on Tuesday, I was touched by how quickly folks caught on to what’s unique about this passage: the hypothetical in this story is not just a hypothetical about resurrection. It is a hypothetical that pre-supposes a patriarchal world where a woman’s job is to bear an heir for a man—even a deceased…
Read more: The shadows of sent-out ones
The things we hold in common

Acts 2.42–47

Some translations use the word “generosity” instead of simplicity, and that’s because the word we’re looking at is somewhere between idiom and metaphor in the original Greek. The word is “aphelotes” and its literal translation is something like “the opposite of stubbing your toe.” It’s something you do on accident, without even realizing it until…
Read more: The things we hold in common