“Seek the peace of the city. Pray for peace in the city. Your peace is tied up in the peace of the city.” This is what God told Jeremiah. There’s no real well-being until well-being reaches all segments of the population. This idea runs counter to our gated community...
God gave Timothy many gifts. The gift of a mother and grandmother who passed on their sincere faith to him. The gift of clarity: “God did not give us a spirit of fear.” And the gifts of power, love and self-discipline. Also translated as ability, love and sanity....
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...
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...
What happens after the crowd leaves? When there are no more people to please, no more performances to pull off, and no more approvals to win, then what? In that moment, some will choose the crowd over Christ, the crowd over the Christian we could be. In The Origin of...
Went to see Rob Bell this summer. He’s touring the world talking about joy. Here are a few quotes from my notes: “Cynicism is easy and for lazy people. The cynic is a recreational user of the heavy things of life. Joy moves from lightness to heaviness, back to...
I am grateful for the Rule of Law. Grateful to live in a society that by and large values the legal process. Glad that I serve a faith tradition that has Canon law. Law and order is a good thing, mostly. But what about those times when more than the law is required?...
Can’t you hear Jesus saying to all the baptized, down through the hallway of time, “Welcome to the beautiful struggle. Welcome to the joyful rebellion. Don’t be surprised if the world hates you. I have come to bring a sword, not to be nice. They killed me because of...