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The Bonds of Christianity go beyond the Bible
Last week, I found myself on the outside of a Christian community. It’s a strange feeling. I honestly didn’t know what to make of it. I was angry. Confused. Not sure what was going on. It was, after all, a simple Facebook group and therefore inconsequential. But the circumstances felt very prescient and significant. A…
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A ‘Kum Bah Ya’ Moment
In Matthew 10:24-39, we find the downside of discipleship, the hard stuff which would drive us away from it. If we didn’t know what’s at stake. Proper 7A | Matthew 10:24-39 There are certain times preachers don’t want to take on the gospel. Often because it’s hard to talk about money or sex or divorce.…
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Know your strategy
There’s a difference between building a strategy because you have to and because you want to. We all get this at a certain level. We tell each other there’s a difference betweens needs and wants and we try to teach that difference to our kids. That isn’t the problem. The problem is we can’t always…
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It isn’t weird to be a Christian who supports abortion rights
You’ve heard the narratives about “what all Christians believe.” And you’ve heard many a high-profile pastor speak for all of Christians. He tells you precisely what we all believe, like we’re 3 billion cultists in the world with an identical worldview. We don’t all believe the same stuff. And yet this view of a singular…
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You and I are the real devils – Some thoughts on Satan
I never got the devil. Satan. I never believed it existed. My earliest memories of Satan were the conflicted and stretched arguments of cartoons and Bible stories in church, none of which made the devil ever seem real. It was like thinking thunder came from God bowling in the clouds or stepping on a crack…
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An Embarrassment of Grace
Jesus sends his disciples out before they’re ready to do the work they don’t understand. A lot like us. Because that’s the work for us to do. Proper 6A | Matthew 9:35-10:23 Some time ago. A few years before seminary, before I preached my first sermon or proclaimed my first gospel, I was getting up…
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Bernie Sanders isn’t denying your right to believe in hell
Bernie Sanders doesn’t care what you believe about hell. He does care if your beliefs demonize other people. This is the context in which Christian conservatives fell back to seeing persecutions everywhere. Often looking for persecutions precisely when asked to recognize their bias. At a recent confirmation hearing for Russell Vought who was nominated to become…
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A Book of Prayer for Common People
For many, the Book of Common Prayer is a source of continuity and comfort. What they rarely recognize is that it is a radical, world-changing document. Written and updated by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (1533-1556), the Book of Common Prayer, or BCP was a radical invention formed of a radical time. England, thoroughly enmeshed in another of…
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