Culture
What’s going on, who we are, and what the big deal is.
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Jesus Offends Us
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3 min read
John the Baptist is locked in a cell, full of doubt, wondering what the whole Jesus experiment is really all about. He is left questioning everything. What is my role in this? Was I wrong? What he’s really thinking is this: Jesus isn’t the Messiah. This Sunday’s gospel is Matthew 11:2-11, and just in case…
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The tiny gifts of St. Nick
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1 min read
St. Nicholas usually comes to our house. He has found us as we’ve moved. He found us after I grew up and moved out of my parents’ house. He always came to us there. St. Nicholas finds us. And when he does, he puts stuff in our shoes. — When I was getting older, but…
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Those of us who live in the north are reminded this time of year to put together an emergency kit. We put in a flashlight, hand warmers, something to kneel on, jumper cables, and more into a box that we keep in the trunk for the next few months. Because we never know when…
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Breaking Our Fast
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5 min read
Of all the spiritual disciplines, I am quickly coming to the conclusion that this one is the most important: the discipline of breaking a fast. The foundation of the word discipline is in speaking of common order–and one’s relationship to order. When we speak of the church’s laws and principles, we refer to the “doctrine and discipline”…
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Our Fast
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5 min read
It is fitting that Congress set All Saints’ Day as the day to cut SNAP (the program formerly known as Food Stamps). The day we celebrate all of the saints that came before, all the saints in our midst, and all of the saints to come, All Saints’ Day is one of the church’s principle…
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Is there a true leader?
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1 min read
The first question a powerful nation must ask before going to war with another; before attempting to overthrow the leader of a sovereign nation is this: is there a truly reconciling native leader? History is full of failed leaders and failed states. Nelson Mandela and George Washington are the exceptions that prove the rule. So…