If you’re going to have an intimate and active life with God, you’re going to have to say no to three things: smallness, separateness and superiority. You’re going to have to realize that we are a human family; that we live together on a blue ball made mostly of...
It can all be so exhausting: life, livelihood, striving, even spirituality with its laundry list of how to be. Maybe that’s why Psalm 130 is one of my favorites. The poet seems to want one thing, to enjoy God! When last did you just enjoy God? The fact of God? The way...
When the bible finishes its story, we are left with an image. It’s a gathering of people, a family reunion. Every nation, language and tribe. We’ve all got on long white robes, and palm branches in our hands. And we’re singing, all of us. Singing, “thanksgiving, power...
Jesus wasn’t meek and mild. You don’t publicly execute meek and mild people. You crucify people who confront the system. Life with Jesus then and now is 50 percent comfort and 50 percent confrontation. If Jesus’ words and example aren’t...
If you and I are immersed in a love that has no borders, limitations or litmus tests, then we have all we need to go to places that appear loveless. We walk in love so, we can walk into rooms rife with political rancor. We are ambassadors for Christ. And while we may...
People remember Jesus calmed the wind and the sea with a phrase, “Peace! Be still!” What is less remembered is Jesus taught his followers to be able to do the same. “Where is your faith?” Jesus asked them. Following Jesus is about taking up agency. It’s about Jesus...
Jesus echoed the good news from Isaiah and brought it forward. Enfleshed it. Good news that disrupts the bad news. Good news for the people who are on a constant diet of bad news. Good news for the poor. Good news for the blind and those behind bars. Freedom for those...
Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from...
I wonder how anxiety has shaped you, is shaping you-your family, your work? Our anxieties drive our relationships with God, reality and one another more than we know. They can keep us meek rather than bold; coy rather than candid; fearful when faith is needed. The...
If we are a beautiful and complex American family as I believe us to be, then celebrations of Pride and Juneteenth this month belong to us all. How could I not rejoice especially when a family member formerly relegated to the shadows of life is now welcomed into the...
