1 Peter

Too many powerful people in public positions today refuse to repudiate the language of threat.

It’s one thing to suffer in the context of doing something bad, but suffering while doing good?

I think the women at the prison where I preach know what the psalmist knew.

There's more than one way to taste and see the goodness of God.

I see love incarnate in suffering flesh, a body bearing a body in pain for love.

The disruptive way of the Lamb

The disruptive way of the Lamb

The disruptive way of the Lamb

At the airport, waiting to put her on the plane, we cast our shared anxiety on God.

On Good Shepherd Sunday, it's tempting to wander there beside the still waters.

Acts 7:55–60; Psalm 31:1–5, 15–16; 1 Peter 2:2–10; John 14:1–14

1 Peter 1:3–9, John 20:19–31

Belief in the incarnation places suffering bodies within the realm of Christian responsibility.

Lent began as a time of preparation for the covenant of baptism. The Year B Lenten readings very much ring out this theme of covenant, starting this Sunday with the covenant with Noah and its interpretation in 1 Peter as the covenant of baptism. The coming weeks feature the covenants with Abraham and with Moses and finally the covenant written upon our hearts in Jeremiah 31. Developing the theme of covenant might be an edifying way to let these Lenten scripture readings prepare congregations for Holy Week—especially the high drama of the Easter Vigil, centered on the waters of baptism.

There’s a reason that flood stories are so universal: we fear wiping ourselves out through our own violence.

In adapting my course for video, I had to learn to bridge the distance between me and students I couldn't imagine, let alone see.

In Jean Thompson’s novel The Year We Left Home, Anita extends an impulsive invitation to a mere acquaintance, Rhonda. Their lives have turned out very differently. Anita enjoys a contented home life with her husband and children, while Rhonda has endured an abusive boyfriend for far too long. So Anita invites Rhonda to her home, and says she can stay as long as she likes.

Driving home, Anita contemplates the implications of her sudden act of hospitality.

The recipients of 1 Peter lived far off the grid of Roman power. A people with no social standing, they were deemed unworthy of defending. And yet it is to these people that the letter proclaims lofty praise.

Thomas discerns what neither Mary Magdalene nor the other disciples did: that Jesus is both “my Lord and my God.” I wonder if we need to explore more seriously Thomas’s approach to faith. We sing “We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight,” but what is wrong with walking by both?

What exactly qualifies as a fiery ordeal?