• Love Awakens

    Love Awakens

    Another shooting, further proof of the dangerous social pathologies in the American body politic, could be just a number. But instead, it’s awakening the spirit of love long dormant and suppressed by fear and a narrow understanding of freedom. Last week, I had to write a new sermon. The gospel was about the beginning of…

  • The Frightening Case Of a Coming American Collapse

    The Frightening Case Of a Coming American Collapse

    The United States is in the midst of a social collapse. That’s the claim Umair Haque makes in an electric essay. Here are his three main takeaways. If the United States were to collapse, how would we know it? We think we’d know, right? Structures would fall, the banks would run out of money, and…

  • Facing Repentance

    Facing Repentance

    In Mark 1:9-15, Jesus reveals the mission of God, but another school shooting tests our resolve to see it, or to listen to his words of hope, saying that the time is now, kin-dom is here! A school shooting tests Ash Wednesday’s invitation to reconciliation Lent 1B  |  Mark 1:9-15 I had a really good…

  • Ashes and Hearts – On Fire

    Ashes and Hearts – On Fire

    Most of what we talk about on Ash Wednesday is found in the small part of the Sermon on the Mount we get in the lectionary (Matthew 6:1-6,16-21). The rest of the chapter reveals it means so much more. Ash Wednesday is way more than ashes – it’s the work of forgiveness Ash Wednesday  | …

  • How to Not Celebrate Valentine’s Day

    How to Not Celebrate Valentine’s Day

    It seems weird to mix Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday. One’s the annual celebration of love and the other the annual reminder of our own mortality. But the two belong together more than we think. In 2018 we are fortunate to have St. Valentine’s Day land on Ash Wednesday. And the juxtaposition of the two…

  • Listen

    Listen

    In the Transfiguration, we get the big spectacle event, so consuming with visual, power, and misunderstanding, we might fail to hear the voice in the middle of it all saying “listen to him.” Are we listening to Jesus any better than the disciples? Epiphany Last B | Mark 9:2-9 The story doesn’t begin at the…

  • Predatory Society – A Pathology of Cruelty

    Predatory Society – A Pathology of Cruelty

    In a challenging new essay for Eudaimonia & Co., Umair Haque names 5 social pathologies of collapse. And I think they can kickstart a conversation around our culture’s greatest needs. This is my reflection of the fifth pathology: a predatory society. In movies, an easy way to get the audience to connect with the characters on screen is to show…

  • Extreme Capitalism – A Pathology of Exploitation

    Extreme Capitalism – A Pathology of Exploitation

    In a challenging new essay for Eudaimonia & Co., Umair Haque names 5 social pathologies of collapse. And I think they can kickstart a conversation around our culture’s greatest needs. This is my reflection of the fourth pathology: extreme capitalism. Of all the pathologies effecting us, this is the most divisive. And perhaps the most obvious. To root out why…