Listen to Audio
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Ah… our dear friend Thomas, the icon of outspoken doubt. Since Easter fell on April Fool’s Day this year, I find myself particularly grateful … Read the rest
Continue reading "Body of Hurt and Hope" »Listen to Audio
I well remember that bleached out pink plastic cup, a survivor of more wash-tub ablutions than it was ever designed for, filled with a warm cloudy liquid. I could smell the cloying sweetness wafting upward from the rim, and I think I may also have seen a few spongy white spheres suspended in the fluid. … Read the rest
Continue reading "Cup of Death and Life" »
Listen to Audio
No. No more of this.
Lately I’ve been finding myself in a something like a state of chronic lament. Waking up, as I do, to a news feed filled with very public cases of domestic abuse and #metoo harassment , cruel deportations that divide families… and now yet another massacre of school children. I fear … Read the rest
Continue reading "The Lent of Our Discontent" »Listen to Audio
Someone in this house has just recovered from a fever, has been lifted up, and is serving God. I don’t necessarily know who it is. Although… you may. The person recovered from the fever may even be you.
I know that it has been me. Lord knows I’ve had some debilitating fevers in my life: … Read the rest
Continue reading "Fever & Faith" »Listen to Audio
So it’s a week to be an Oregonian, no? I have to love it when our gas-pumping habits make the national news. On Thursday I woke up to the Washington Post headline that read “I don’t even know HOW: Some Oregonians panic about the new self-service gas law.”
Great. The rest of the country already … Read the rest
Continue reading "God's Renewable Energy" »Listen to Audio
This morning’s lessons contain something like a sacred inventory of body parts: Feet. Arms. Hands. Flesh. In … Read the rest
Continue reading "The Word is Good" »Listen to Audio
Nothing will be impossible with God. This is what the angel Gabriel told the young Mary, echoing the message of 2nd Samuel when the Lord told the prophet Nathan that God would make a great house from the line of the simple shepherd now become king David. And Paul reiterates it in his own … Read the rest
Continue reading "Not-Impossible" »Listen to Audio
Today being Christ the King Sunday, and myself never having lived under the authority of an earthly king, I thought I’d better do some research into how my peers think about kings. So I did what contemporary people do, and turned to the Oracle of Mountain View—that being Google—for insight.
I figured that … Read the rest
Continue reading "Jesus & Jonathan Haidt" »
Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?
Sometime in the 12th century, this phrase, or something like unto it, was reputedly said by King Henry II to his courtiers. They interpreted it as a command to murder Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had been challenging the king in matters of property and legal … Read the rest
Continue reading "Pride and Priestliness" »Am I losing my mind?
That’s what my friend Lisa asked recently. Now there’s no shortage of reasons why followers of Jesus might ask that question at this time of year. Mary Magdalene and Mary, were you losing your minds when you snuck off to see the tomb of one so shamefully executed? Or when an angel sent … Read the rest
Continue reading "Easter Community Guidelines" »
