-
·
Why I’m preaching Easter 7 (and nothing else)
This week there are no doubt many preachers trying to figure out how to deal with Sunday. It is the Seventh Sunday of Easter. It also happens to be two other things: the Sunday after the Ascension and Mother’s Day. To the church, it is Easter 7. This isn’t to say that people in church…
-
·
The Right of Way
Dropping my daughter off at preschool this morning, I almost got hit by a car. I exaggerated. I did not almost. I could have. Here’s how. My daughter’s preschool is part of a big Lutheran church. They have a good-sized parking lot. We are pretty early and there are relatively few cars. As I walk…
-
·
Not Free to Think
A short reflection on race, geopolitics, theology, and the role of the church in faith. Growing up in the church, I have long felt both at home in the church and like a resident alien. What some classify as evoking transcendent timelessness, I have often seen as dated and inaccessible. When exploring other ways of…
-
·
What I Buy About the Cross
A few years ago, Rose and I were visiting some friends for dinner. After the plates had been cleared and we were finishing our dessert, my friend said “I’m starting to believe that I don’t need a Jesus to have existed to believe in a Christ.” The look on his wife’s face shocked me much…
-
·
The Scandal of Lent
Every year I struggle with Lent. I struggle with what we are really called to do. Certain things are different, and yet we don’t really live all that differently. We fast or we take on new things or we mark our worship differently. But something doesn’t ring true about it for me. As I wrote…
-
·
Feeling the Movement
Here in Memphis, I’ve joined together with many Christians to celebrate Phyllis Tickle at the Emergence Christianity conference (hash tag #EC13). We’re hearing presentations from Mrs. Tickle about the subject of the book of the same name (Emergence Christianity) and responses from dozens of people involved in emergence. I’m loving it! There is plenty…
-
·
Sex as Biblical Marriage
Reading Genesis again for our Bible study, I have found this nuance with regards to how the writers use the concept of marriage quite interesting: having sex with someone makes you married. To unpack what this means, we ought to step back from our 21st Century “culture war” arguments about what marriage means or who…
