You may have noticed, even through the haze of a beer-soaked, three-day weekend, that this is Labor Day Weekend. We all know this is the unofficial end of summer and, therefore, the day I have to stop wearing my fancy white suits, but it’s also a day that we celebrate labor by taking a break from it. What you may …
Jesus is a Jerk
One of this week’s Scriptures has always troubled me. In Matthew 15.21-28 Jesus is a jerk – kind of a racist jerk. This raises a lot of questions. First, we have to wonder if it really happened. Jesus first ignores the Canaanite woman’s needs and then calls her a dog. That’s not nice. Jesus is nice. We know that from …
Depression and Suicide: Beyond Buzzfeed
The death of Robin Williams this week has brought a ton of information about depression and suicide bubbling to the top of social networks and message boards and content aggregators. That’s probably a good thing. Much of the power that drives a person to that point and keeps one from asking for help is the feeling that one is alone, …
The Cleanse
Some of you might know that I started a 21-day cleanse diet on Monday. This is probably not “church news,” but I wanted to explain some of my thinking because I am looking at it as a spiritual practice. I should start by explaining what it is. It is vegan, but that’s not all. It also eschews alcohol, caffeine, carbs, …
It’s a Miracle. Or Not.
As promised, we’re done with the Apostle Paul for a bit. I hope that we have gained a more generous view of Paul that acknowledges his deep love for a gospel of justice and peace even where his writing can, at times, be problematic. Now we’re going back to the Gospels, so more stories and less jibber-jabber. Specifically, we are …
The Eternal Becoming
One of my developing theses in this section on the Apostle Paul is that his hopes were bigger than he was. His view of the possibilities for his world and his faith was constrained. For example, we have seen how his understanding of physiology shaped his views of what it means to live a spiritual life. For Paul, equality operates …