Skip to content

Improvisations

thinking outloud online

Primary Navigation

  • About
  • Classes, Studies, Workshops
  • Sermons
  • Weddings
    • Non-religious simple, multicultural ceremony
    • A Christian Wedding Reflection
  • Currently Reading

Me

WHAT I DO: Pastor, Community Organizing, Justice Advocacy, Parent, Spouse, General Adulting Stuff

THINGS I ENJOY: Good food. No. I mean REALLY good food. Being a Presbyterian. Movies. Jazz. A really friendly local coffee shop with free WiFi

DISCLAIMER

Contents may be inflammatory. If you suffer from 100% confidence in the what you learned in childhood, or 100% doctrinal certitude, or if you don't like it when someone nudges your metaphorical cheese, consult somebody else.

Recent Posts

  • Still untitled…
  • Ode to Our Sidewalk
  • An Open Letter to the Oakland City Council: Close the Duplex / Triplex / 4-plex Loophole
  • There will be another Linda Fairstein
  • Point of No Return
  • Here is your mother
  • Part Two: Dandelions in the Temple
  • Stay
  • Part 1: Dandelions and White Supremacy: The Overarching Frame

Social

  • View Deb Avery’s profile on Facebook
  • View jazzpastord’s profile on Twitter
  • View jazzdeb’s profile on Instagram
  • View jazzdeb’s profile on Pinterest
  • View Deb Avery’s profile on YouTube

Enter your email address to follow me and get notes about new posts by email.

Join 3,465 other followers

More

  • About
  • Classes, Studies, Workshops
  • Currently Reading
  • Sermons
    • A Message from the Grave
    • Ah, Lord God!
    • Can I Get A Witness?
    • Change is Hard
    • Do You Believe?
    • Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
    • Following Jesus: The Chaos of Discipleship
    • Heating Up the Lukewarm Church
    • If only you were here…
    • Magically Transformed: Eastertide Sermon Series
    • Not Heroic, Just Faithful
    • Not What We Expected
    • Passing Through
    • Rainbow Connections
    • Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs
    • The Boring Story of the Prodigal Son
    • The Dreaded Plumb Line
    • The Fire of Peace
    • THIS is the Year!
    • We’ve heard it said…
    • What to do about hope.
    • Willing to be loved
  • Weddings
    • 13 Coin Blessing (Arras)
    • A Christian Wedding Reflection
    • Formal Religious Ceremony for an Older Couple
    • Garden Wedding (Christian with humor)
    • Lasso Blessing
    • Non-religious simple, multicultural ceremony
    • Sample Bilingual Spanish Non-Religious Ceremony

When

December 2019
S M T W T F S
« Oct    
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  

Tags

Advent Bay Area Berkeley Blog a day Change choosing Christian Christianity church community devotion ELCA Election ethics faith First Presbyterian Church of Oakland FPCO GA221 genderqueer Good Friday hope human-rights immigration justice leadership lgbtq Oakland pcusa poem poetry politics preaching presbyterian questions racism religion repentance resurrection San Francisco Sermon theology Twitter unco11 UNCO13 UNCO14 welcome worship writing

Tag: presbyterian

Credibility Gap
church, community, hope, interdenominational, Justice, Oakland, pcusa, preaching, presbyterian, sermon

Credibility Gap

A Sermon preached on September 25, 2016 Based on James 2:14-18, The Belhar Confession and The Letter from a Birmingham … Continue reading Credibility Gap

This Day
church, community, Justice, lgbtq, Oakland, pcusa, preaching, presbyterian, sermon, Suffering

This Day

What does it mean to be a citizen? What does it mean to be a productive participant in our society? There is a checklist and unfortunately, the items on that list have typically been determined by people with privilege – the privilege of whiteness, the privilege of maleness, the privilege of heteronormative lifestyle, the privilege of economic power. Continue reading This Day

Baby Food for Fools
church, community, Justice, paradigm shift, pcusa, preaching, presbyterian, sermon

Baby Food for Fools

…though their world lay in shattered ruins around them, they still thought of themselves as righteous bringers of peace… as God’s chosen healers of a broken world. Continue reading Baby Food for Fools

Am I My Sibling’s Keeper?
church, community, covenant network, hope, Justice, lgbtq, more light, Oakland, paradigm shift, pcusa, preaching, presbyterian, sermon

Am I My Sibling’s Keeper?

(Sermon re-printed here with permission of our 2nd child Calelia Cristian Avery) Am I My Sibling’s Keeper Genesis 4:3-10 Preached on January 31,2015 … Continue reading Am I My Sibling’s Keeper?

Behold! The Days are HERE!
advent, sermon

Behold! The Days are HERE!

2,700 years later we are still waiting. Still hoping. Still clinging. Still searching. But what are we waiting for? Continue reading Behold! The Days are HERE!

Changing the Question
sermon

Changing the Question

A sermon preached on selections from the book of Job. The world is full of seemingly unanswerable questions: How can … Continue reading Changing the Question

Uncategorized

Leaves and Trees: Healing for ALL

Sermon preached on Sunday, September 13, 2015 Based on Revelation 22:1-6 When we think about the book of Revelation, we … Continue reading Leaves and Trees: Healing for ALL

Posts navigation

Older posts
Newer posts
Improvisations
Cancel