• What a talk about pensions taught me about making change

    What a talk about pensions taught me about making change

    A room full of clergy learning about changes to their pension fund is the last place I’d look for inspiration. And it’s a pretty safe guess you wouldn’t look there, either. But a funny thing happened. You don’t need to know anything more about the situation than that. It’s the sort of place which suffocates…

  • A Storm of Ashes

    A Storm of Ashes

    Driving home from our pancake dinner last night, having prepared the materials for our Ashes to Go and some Ash Wednesday goodies (which is in the back, please pick one up on the way out), the darkness mixed with the dripping from the sky. The cracks of thunder and streaks so sudden and arresting, any…

  • Becoming Holy

    Becoming Holy

    There’s a weirdness on that mountain. If we’ve learned anything from our scripture, it might be to not go up mountains. Don’t seek those mountaintop experiences. Don’t do it. Weird stuff happens there. There: anything. Bushes burn, laws given, messiah’s transfigured, and voices come from nowhere to tell you stuff. Bright lights change our appearances…

  • ‘Moonlight’ is 2016

    ‘Moonlight’ is 2016

    I have not been as affected by a movie in years as I was by Moonlight. How it performs at the Oscars won’t change the truth that it is not only a great film, it’s transcendent. Zach Hoag’s review is top shelf and far more thoughtful than the review I never wrote. Except this one simple…

  • Who actually thinks you can believe everything on the internet?

    Who actually thinks you can believe everything on the internet?

    Seriously. Who? Because I’ve never actually met such a person. At the beginning, in the ’90s, there was a lot of trust. It was new. People were just learning to express themselves. Then there was little trust. It quickly filled with swamp and opinion. And then people started to do amazing things. Like Wikipedia and…

  • Choose to Love

    Choose to Love

    Or How to Build the Blessed Community This is an honest question. How many times have we heard a Christian, a follower of Christ, a disciple of Jesus say “an eye for an eye”? A lot, right? These are among the least surprising words to come out of Jesus’s mouth or the mouths of any…

  • Agreeing to Disagree

    Agreeing to Disagree

    The teacher writes the numbers on the board. 2 + 2 = She turns to the class. Silent. Eyes creep to the corners to see their neighbors. “We’ve gone over this. What does two plus two equal?” A girl in the back, braids clicking, raises her hand. “4” The teacher smiles. “Thank you. Any other…

  • Reconsider

    Reconsider

    For the last month or so we’ve been talking about what goes into a new beginning. With baptism, we’re invited to begin again. And with it, we’re invited into following Christ, face adversity, respond, and claim our purpose. Today, we focus on one of the least appreciated parts of our journey. Where we wrestle with…