In all of the news coverage of the anti-Muslim video and the world-wide reaction to it, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about offense–both giving it and taking it. I’ve wondered where exactly the lines of blame should be drawn. Do we have a right to offend each other? With a lot of contemporary moral…
Our disciple of the week is Peter! I love the Peter stories . . . maybe because I have a highly impulsive child who would totally step out of the boat, offer to build houses on the mountain, and make big promises with the best of intentions and the worst follow-through. So, here is our…
This call to worship is based on Matthew 14:25-33, the story of Peter walking to Jesus on the water. Such a beautiful story. Holy Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Even now after the sermons, the healings, the miraculous feeding Even now in the ghostly pre-dawn glow Even now as the wind riles the waves and this…
Well, it happened again. I had a lovely thought for my sermon that I just cannot justify putting in my sermon. It really has nothing to do with anything else I’m talking about. Plus, I’m already pushing 20 minutes which, for me, is a long sermon. So, because I cannot bear to delete it, here…
This is the second post in a series about phrases I find unhelpful as church folk talk about how to include LGBT people. There is only one phrase addressed here, because it is something that is said by people on all sides of the issue. Problematic phrase #3: The church has more important things to…
One of my sabbatical projects is to develop a Rule of Life—a set of principles and practices that will guide me, that will under-gird the busyness of life with a holy rhythm and a focus on Christ. You won’t be surprised to know that I’ve also been spending significant time these past weeks reading, writing,…
Driving home from my retreat last weekend, a billboard caught my attention. “When you die,” it asked, “will you go to heaven or hell?” At the bottom was an 800 number you could call, presumably to find out whether you’ll need your flame-retardant pajamas in the afterlife. I would love to listen in on these…
God of the foolish cross, tottering down the streets of Jerusalem on a donkey, You are not the savior we expect. Your power doesn’t look like the power we want our God to demonstrate. Your wisdom makes no sense to us. We are happy to join the crowd, waving branches, But not so sure we…
I first heard about the group United in Purpose several weeks ago on NPR. This group’s stated goal is to get more Christians registered to vote. They use data mining to determine who is Christian and check those names against voter registration records. If you get labeled “Christian” and you’re not registered, you may get…
Since my “pre-sermon ponderings” ended on an ambiguous–yet hopeful–note, I thought some folks might like to see the finished sermon manuscript. The manuscript, of course, is not the sermon. It is what I intended to say. And it is pretty close, I think, to what I actually said. And I can hope that it’s somewhat…
Spacious Faith 