“Breaking news: Jesus speaks life from the garden.” That would be the headline if the Gospel read like The New York Times or The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Sometimes Rabbi, sometimes wonder-worker, Jesus of Nazareth convenes a small gathering of day laborers and poor people to share God’s plan for the human family. In rich and metaphorical language, Jesus, friend of the downtrodden, shared directions on how to have a fruitful life. In spiraling language, Jesus calls God a “vine grower” and himself “the vine.” Jesus, who often speaks of unique intimacy…

Easter isn’t the absence of valleys in life, it’s the presence of hope despite the “shadow of death” in the valley. We get this reminder over and over again in the Bible because weariness and despair hunt us in the valleys of life. And because soul-strengthening faith is made in the valleys of life, not the mountain tops. Indeed, God does God’s best work in the valleys. By definition, “Valleys are depressed areas of land–scoured and washed out by the conspiring forces of gravity, water, and ice.” America feels like…

The first thing Jesus does when he’s raised from the dead, is find his friends behind locked doors in fear and offer “Peace.” Peace, not the absence of hardship, but the presence of liberation. He shows his wounds to his friends. What a defiant act. He bears no shame because of his wounds. He’s liberated, so his wounds are a part of who he is, not all of who he is. And then just like Harriett Tubman, the liberated Jesus shares the coordinates to freedom with his friends. “As I…

The first thing Jesus does when he’s raised from the dead, is find his friends behind locked doors in fear and offer “Peace.” Peace, not the absence of hardship, but the presence of liberation. He shows his wounds to his friends. What a defiant act. He bears no shame because of his wounds. He’s liberated, so his wounds are a part of who he is, not all of who he is. And then just like Harriett Tubman, the liberated Jesus shares the coordinates to freedom with his friends. “As I…

The word Easter is shorthand for God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. That simple incredible claim is the center of our Christian hope. It’s the center because it reminds us who God is, who we are and that God’s future will prevail despite every refusal and rebellion. Easter brings to the front of our mind and the center of our heart that, only God is God. God is the forever center that holds. Easter reminds us dramatically that when it’s God’s will, you can betray it, arrest it, whip…

“Crucifixion ain’t no fiction,” said a 90’s rap group. As followers of Jesus, we agree. The Crucifixion of a man named Jesus from Nazareth is a historical fact. It was the public lynching of a man who stood at the intersection of politics and religion and spoke of God and neighbor. For his words and his work, a politician ordered his destruction to appease the faith community. This grotesque spectacle climaxed on a garbage dump outside the city walls while his mother watched. No fiction. It would be awful enough…

If happiness is lavender, then joy has to be purple. Why purple? Because you make purple out of red and blue. Love and sorrow. Joy lives at that intersection of heartbreak and ecstasy. Joy doesn’t live alone; she has four roommates, faith, hope, wonder and gratitude. They need one another. Each leads to the other. Scripture tells us joy is: a gift, an incentive, a companion, a response and a reward. So joy is in us, for us, with us and will come through us. As we make our way…

How we stand for truth has everything to do with the truth we stand for. For us, the most true thing in the universe is God! With the most true thing about God being that “God is love.” We know that it’s impossible to actually love God without loving neighbor. These two ideas are inseparable and irrefutable. Our living out of these two truths is not contingent on the behavior of others. The love Jesus modeled is inconvenient and as we attempt to live it out we’ll often feel maladjusted…

Putting Jesus at the center of your life is learning how to love as God loves, which involves a willingness to sacrifice our preferred ways and outcomes in favor of Jesus’ way and his preferred outcomes. Spiritually, we haven’t grown up until we want God’s way more than we want our way! Life and relationships are so hard often because the love we have been taught and practice is fearful, thin, and fragile. No wonder it disintegrates when faced with resistance or enemies. But when we decenter ourselves and choose…