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This is where the church stands
At convention this year, our bishop (she’s our bishop for 6 months more!) spoke to the difference between a homily and a sermon. There is no “official” difference between the two. There are no experts to tell us such things anymore, not in this age when truth is so refuted and facts are indeed a…
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You are blessed.
When I went to vote on Thursday, I drove around the one-way streets trying to figure out where to park. I found a spot on the street and crossed. The sun was out. Our unseasonably warm weather confuses my family. We keep wondering when it will finally cool off. Maybe this will be the week…
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Climbing Trees
Did you climb trees as a kid? I never did. I wasn’t a climber. Maybe it was my fear of heights or insecurity about upper body strength. I’m guessing it has more to do with my being a pretty chill kid than anything else. So I didn’t climb trees. But that didn’t mean I didn’t…
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Of Serial and Mercy
Serial, the most listened to podcast in history debuted two years ago. It was just the sort of unlikely cultural phenomenon to bring new people into a medium they didn’t know existed. The podcast. A radio show which doesn’t need a radio. No FM or AM frequencies or radio carriers. All you need is a computer,…
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Persistent in Justice, Love
She got a ticket for driving through a yellow light. I’ll never forget how mad she was when she arrived. Livid. Eyes ready to explode. “It wasn’t red. It wasn’t stale yellow. The light just turned yellow. And you know what the officer said? ‘I have the right to cite you for running through a yellow light.’…
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Generous Mercy
I’m going to guess that nobody here was thinking about that parable from two weeks ago about the rich guy suffering in Hades, wanting a drink of water. Just a little something to wet his lips, they must’ve been so dry in that place of torment. He tries to get Abraham to send Lazarus over…
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Students of Small Things
We like things big in the U.S. When I was going to school in Canada, I’d show up with a 44 oz drink from Speedway and my friends and professors would shake their heads. One called it “Texas-sized” which is pretty true. We’re obsessed with big. Which is why we have trouble with Jesus always…
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Bigger Than the Gap Which Divides Us
Rose and I would watch the show Parenthood each week, wrapt to the Braverman family. Two aging parents, their adult children with children of their own. And one particular storyline divided our household. Proper 21 | Luke 16:19-31 One of the Braverman kids was having marital trouble. The husband, who had sacrificed his career throughout their marriage,…