I’ve been trying to figure out why the events in Charleston this week have affected me as they have. Yes, it’s a tragedy. Nine good people are gone from this world. But let’s face it: this happens every day. Every day, our news cycle is filled with death. I become immune to it just like everyone else. There might be …
Preaching to the Choir
I was supposed to talk about David and Goliath this week, about how we read it as children and how we need to read it as adults. There are themes of abuse of power, the cost of a warrior culture, the providence and protection of God. It’s a great story. I would have been clever and provocative. But something happened …
I AM Anarchy
(Warning: Some of the video links in this message contain strong language. It’s okay. The Apostle Paul did it, too.) The teenage years can be confusing and awkward and mine were no exception. I made questionable hairstyle choices – some things never change! – and thought that Ronald Reagan was the Messiah – thankfully some things do change! At the …
I Don’t Know What to Say
The high liturgical seasons are behind us and now we enter “ordinary time.” No fancy name, like “Eastertide;” it is just called “the Season after Pentecost.” I like ordinary time, though. We get to spread out a bit, immerse ourselves in the stories of Jesus’ ministry, this year from the Gospel of Mark. Maybe pick up some of Paul’s writings, …
The Strangeness of Church
Last Sunday we celebrated Jesus’ ascension into heaven. It’s a typically Lukan scene of strangeness, a man being carried up into the sky until he disappears into the clouds. Things get weirder this week. It’s Pentecost. You’re probably familiar with the story. Jesus’ followers are hanging out, trying to figure out their next move when, suddenly, a wind starts blowing …
SuperJesus
We’ve been in a quasi-series throughout Eastertide, talking about the early Christian communities represented in Acts and 1 John. In particular, we’ve been looking at the struggle for identity through doctrine and practice. Unfortunately, that struggle has too often – not just in the early Church, but in every incarnation since – been decided in favor of doctrine, even at …
The Promise and Peril of the Spirit
Over the last few weeks, we have looked at the early Christian community in Jerusalem as depicted in Acts and the Johannine Christian community from which 1 John emerges. Both communities are trying to figure out what it means to be Christian, what it means to live into the promises of Jesus’ life and death. As both were trying to …
It’s the Queer Bits That Save Us
Michael Warner, in Fear of a Queer Planet, defines queer as “resistance to the regimes of the normal.” I can’t think of a better way to describe life in God. Yet we see in our examination of these two early churches, the Jerusalem church described in Acts and the Beloved Community of the Johannine literature, an attempt to focus on …
Love and Justice (and Babies!)
It has been a hectic week with a surprise trip to Las Vegas to help take care of my new niece and nephew while their mother (my sister-in-law) recovers in the hospital after a rough delivery. She is improving and the kids are sure to be the smartest, kindest, beautifulest people the world has ever known. I’m back in town …
Welcome to the New Life
We had a great time at Oak Cliff Earth Day handing out free cookies. Thanks to everyone who baked and helped prepare and set up and tear down and everyone who just came and hung out at the booth. I love that we have such meaningful (and not so meaningful) conversation no matter where we are and have so much …