Silence in the Presence of the Holy

One of my joys of coming out of COVID is that I get to go to movie theatres again and see films on the big screen. I love being enveloped by the darkness, surrounded by the sound. Films take me out of my world and transport me to another place and...

Prophets Say Words We Don’t Want to Hear

See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. Isaiah 40:11 There are so many words and concepts that we use in church or Scripture study that we don’t use in other contexts: “redemption,”...

This is the Way the World Ends

When I was a young evangelical Christian, I was terrified by prospects of the end of the world. From my Bible reading I heard about Jesus coming like a thief in the night, as a consuming fire. When the Yom Kippur war broke out in Israel in 1973, I was sure Armageddon...

Sobriety As a Practice of Thanksgiving

But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for...

A House for All Sinners and Saints

While a House for All Sinners and Saints was the name of the parish served by Nadia Bolz-Weber (a public pastor and theologian), it could also serve as the name for every Christian congregation. Churches are not composed of only one type of person. Each and everyone...

What Happens When the Language of Peace Gets Censored?

As violence in Israel and Gaza escalates, including the bombing of a hospital which killed hundreds of Palestinians this week, U. S. State Department officials are censoring how their employees describe what is happening. According to a report in the Huffington Post...

Civic Engagement Is An Act of Peacemaking

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that...

You Are Richer Than You Think

The notion of currency was much in the news this week—the fraud trial of former President Trump; the criminal trial of Sam Bankman Fried, the founder of FMX the crypto currency exchange; and the brinksmanship of Congress around funding the government which led to the...

Being of the Same Mind

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Philippians 2:1 It is a challenge...

Stardust as Metaphorical or Literal Resurrection?

How to describe what happens to us after death? The Gospels bear witness to the experience of Jesus’ earliest followers seeing one they knew as Jesus in bodily form; it is striking that in one account they do not recognize him. This is a movement that theologians...

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