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Why Religious Freedom Acts are Code for Open Discrimination
In the last few years, we’ve seen a flurry of new bills coming out of state houses addressing religious liberty. They reveal an earnest desire to protect religious freedom. In practice, however, they serve to disenfranchise and actually restrict the religious liberty of vast numbers of people. These bills, popping up in at least 20 states, including…
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Wishing to See
Learning in the absence of Jesus Lent 5B | John 12:20-33 Wishing to See “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” It is a deceptively simple moment. We’d almost overlook it. These people come to Philip looking for Jesus. Philip goes to Andrew and they both go to Jesus. “Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” they…
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When is something redefined?
When something is constantly evolving throughout history, when do we claim it is “redefined”? Do we say it every time? Of course we think of it in the big moments. When we think of marriage, we think of the current marriage equality movement, and an earlier generation’s movement toward the legal acceptance of interracial…
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Jesus the Snake
An alternative homily for Lent 4B | John 3:14-21 It is an odd place to begin the story: with the snake. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. The lectionary cuts off the…
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Not Afraid of the Dark
Banishing the fear that shrouds the light of Christ Lent 4B | John 3:14-21 In the Dark of Night When we pulled up to the bus stop this week in the inky-blue of morning, we found ourselves at the back of the line. A small handful of 3rd or 4th graders rule the stop and…
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The Tie or the Collar
You have a preference. Everyone does. You want your pastor or priest to look a certain way. You know other people have a preference, too. Their preference may match yours. It may not. You know the pastor or priest has her preference. Hopefully you care what that is. The question is not so much whether…
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For Proclaiming the Gospel, Context is Everything
Between the Lectionary and the world, we’re getting hit with fireballs: the kind of truth that burns and purifies, leaving us naked and lost. I know I wasn’t the only one on Sunday, talking about Jesus in the Temple. A story often referred to as a “cleansing” of the Temple, but more to the point,…
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Tearing Down the Temple
Jesus’s call for the end of faith as we know it Now, Jesus isn’t pushing us toward a churchless faith, a religionless spirituality, or independent devotion. Jesus doesn’t attack the institution because it is an institution but because the leadership of the existing institution is corrupt. Because how they understand scripture is corrupt. Because the…
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