I’ve been pushing “weak theology” recently. I’m not sure there’s a better example of it than the Christmas story. According to “strong theology,” God is this perfect, non-contingent being. That is, God relies on nothing, needs nothing. And yet, the story that Christians tell about God coming into the world has God showing up as a helpless little baby, the …
Joy in a Time of Tension
For some, Christmas is a joyful time; for some, it is not. Amid the lights and parties, there is a lot of pressure to be happy, to wear a smile whether you feel it or not. There is also a lot of stress with buying presents and decorating and travel. Everything has to be just so. It has to match …
Peace in a Time of Chaos
Repent! For the end is near! In fact, it’s already here. Remember a couple of weeks ago when the world ended, as it always does? Now is the time of the after-thought, the metanoia, the thinking in the after. The world is chaos, welter and waste, and the Spirit of God hovers over the top of it, coaxing it back …
Hope in a Time of Desolation
After spending Sunday talking about finding hope in the desolate places, I got a call from our friend Ivan on Monday night. We talk at Church in the Cliff about how what we do is an ongoing conversation. Even though Ivan missed church on Sunday, which is fine, he somehow was plugged into the Spirit of our conversation. When I …
Weak Theology
For a long time, people have come to Church in the Cliff to deconstruct the religion they received earlier in their lives or, perhaps, the kind of civil religion that dominates our culture. We haven’t always been good about helping people reconstruct. Our hope has been that people were doing that on their own, through our conversation. However, one of …
Three Things
I want to begin by thanking Adrien for leading on Sunday. It was truly a blessing to be able to sit in the pews and respond. It was especially nice to not know what was going to happen. Usually, I spend all week wrestling with a topic, so Sunday morning is merely a recitation of my thoughts and management of …
In Essence
At the end of our conversation, Josh asked a question that I’ll try to paraphrase: “While you’re saying that people aren’t evil, are you also saying that there is something intrinsic to people that makes them do evil things?” I think that was the gist of it. I don’t think I adequately answered the question, but it gets at something …
Life is a Rehearsal
In 1953, Pastor Lawrence T. Holman preached a sermon entitled, “Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal.” It’s unclear whether he came up with this phrase – it is perhaps most hilariously attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche – but it is now ubiquitous, being ideally suited to be a meme for social media. It is meant to convey a sense of urgency …
St. Nina Simone
“What I hope to do all the time is to be so completely myself, to be so much myself that my audiences and even people who meet me are confronted when they – oh wow! they’re confronted with what I am inside and out, as honest as I can be. And this way they have to see things about themselves, …
St. Ida B. Wells-Barnett
In times like these – and I don’t think I need to explain that phrase; you know what I mean – there is a lot of angst about how to move forward. Certainly, political change is necessary and political change can really only happen through compromise, by building coalitions around points of agreement and choosing to ignore points of disagreement. …