First Words
The beautiful stillness of the Christ child
As the rotating nativity spun, I kept watching Jesus.
George H. W. Bush’s letter to Bill Clinton was a model of respect and solidarity
What will Donald Trump leave for Joe Biden?
The privilege of opting out
And the Christian calling to opt back in
My daughter’s wedding vows made me think about what it means to receive
Taking is possessing. Receiving is a gift.
Loving your neighbor starts with the people on your block
My five-year-old parishioner spent the summer going door to door.
Why didn’t the police show any empathy for Daniel Prude?
Jesus, too, encountered a naked man living with mental torment. He responded quite differently.
We’re not giving away a new car or an all-expenses-paid month in Europe
We hope you’ll support us anyway.
Louisiana’s habitual offender law is cruel and unjust
Just because something is legal doesn’t make it morally right.
Compassion begins in the eyes
The pandemic hasn’t taken away our ability to look our neighbor in the eye.
Christian Cooper’s compassion toward Amy Cooper is rooted in his conscience
Good conscience isn’t forged in the heat of the moment. It acquires its shape over time.
Is the destruction of monuments a rewriting of history?
Holding in tension our achievements and failures as a nation
Becoming less defensive about white privilege
The Christian faith provides some tools for letting go of our defensiveness.
What I’d like to say to President Trump about the Bible
I’d tell him a secret I learned from Eugene Peterson.
Pentecost is the truest conspiracy
The church can conspire—breathe together—to bring goodness into the world.
Churches obsessed with their right to reopen are missing the point
Genuine Christian faith is larger than the US Constitution.
Grab a book. It’s good for your health.
That’s one good thing about sheltering in place.
The coronavirus pandemic is nurturing neighborliness
We seem to be relearning the social benefits of building community with our not-so-close neighbors.
Looking for constancy when routines are disrupted
I’ve been thinking about a French horn teacher I once had.
The resource we most need during the coronavirus pandemic is human relationship
Looking for signs of hope when social distancing keeps us apart
Death and the grace of “it is finished”
At a recent funeral, some churchgoers were surprised by my choice of texts.