Early in my years at seminary, a little over 30 years ago, I read the book Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willamon, who were on the faculty of Duke Divinity School. It continues to be one of the more important books I’ve read—and it is not long or complex. The paragraph that has […]
Take a moment and prayerfully consider what is happening in our country and world. Pay attention to your body as you do. What do you feel? What do you carry? Although this may not be true for everyone, taking a moment to really reflect might lead us into a moment of heaviness. Sometimes all of […]
While I’ve always been fascinated by the many different languages that are spoken around the world, I’ve also always been terrified to learn to speak any of them. Case in point – I was one of 6 people in my high school graduating class that took every level of Latin that was offered. I did […]
I can remember a time when I promised myself I wouldn’t be one of those preachers who makes football references every Sunday of the season, so I hope former me will forgive current me today. It’s not really a football reference directly; it’s just about football players. Or even more directly football players who have […]
Sometime in the few years after my kids were too old for such things, a friend of mine, an Episcopal priest, started posting pictures on her social media of her “wandering wisemen.” I have to say, I was jealous I missed out on the chance to pick up this tradition with our family, but with […]
The first Sunday after Christmas is always a little… barren. Let’s be honest about that. We were just here a few days ago. We lit candles on Christmas Eve. We sang Silent Night. We heard the angels, the shepherds, the good news of great joy. Some of us are still tired from hosting, traveling, cooking, or simply being around people for an extended period […]
Many of us might have learned that fear is a problem that must be overcome. Or that feeling fear is a negative emotion that we are supposed to push down. Or maybe we feel something along the lines of if we were truly faithful, truly trusting God; we would feel calmer, steadier, more certain, less […]
In the book of Matthew, John the Baptist, first comes on the scene after the story of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. That is Matthew jumps from the angelic annunciation to Joseph that his betrothed would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit, to the arrival of wise men who came sometime after that child […]
We are beginning our Advent, our new church year and the time in which we anticipate Christ’s historical and contemporary and future breaking into the human experience, right at the beginning of the gospel according to Luke. It’s a different place to do it. Many times we start with big cosmic stories of apocalypse. Other […]
Today is the last Sunday of the “church” year. This typically falls right before our Thanksgiving Holiday. A day set aside by our government as a special time in which to give thanks for all the blessings bestowed upon our nation. Additionally, it is a day to think about our strength in diversity, as we […]
Of course, there are some passages in Scripture that are pretty intense, sometimes so much so that it causes us to fidget a little or sit up a little straighter when we hear them. Malachi gives us one of those moments, which is why I think it’s worth reading the passage again. These three verses […]
There’s usually a moment in big project when we stop and look around and wonder if it’s worth continuing. We begin with hope and excitement, with energy and vision, imagining the finished goal. But somewhere along the way, the excitement dulls or the frustration kicks in. And whatever we are working toward becomes harder to […]
