14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, RCL)

Encounters with God happen, and they are known by their liberating effects. How can confirmation class support such encounters?

In Romans 7, sin seems to have at least as much agency as Paul does.

One way to approach the epistle text for this week is to talk about the spiritual discipline of saying yes and saying no, an idea I was first introduced to by M. Shawn Copeland. (I find The Message translation of this passage helpful here.) God created us with the freedom to say yes and say no. But as Paul reminds us, we don’t always know how to use this freedom very well.

We learn to be Christian not when we succeed at perfection but when we realize that we will always fail.

Is there any chance that people will not sin?

Before his questioning of the doctrine of hell sparked such a (ahem) firestorm, Rob Bell wrote in Velvet Elvis a chapter about yokes.

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!" says the bold, insensitive prophet.

Song of Songs is a forgotten book, hidden away between pragmatic Ecclesiastes and monumental Isaiah, but if you look, you’ll find it, shining with summer’s golden light.

"Do not touch.” “Do not taste.” “Don’t walk on the grass.” What is it about me that wants to do exactly what signs instruct me not to do? The warnings are probably for my benefit. The signs are not evil. So why do they bring out the worst in me?

For a Christian, freedom means being the one whom God intends us to be.