Scripture
Being a pastor within the secular frame means teaching people how to pray
Prayer is ministry, and ministry is prayer.
Reading Paul through Paul (Galatians 3:23-29)
Galatians 3 does not sound like something that could be constrained by pragmatism elsewhere.
The confidence to call shots (Romans 5:1-5)
Paul encourages his readers to trust an outcome they cannot yet see.
July 7, Ordinary 14C (Luke 10:1-11, 16-20; Isaiah 66:10-14; Galatians 6:[1-6], 7-16)
I want to be like Lizzo when I grow up.
Robert Alter’s Hebrew Bible translation is at once accurate and eloquent
Precision and beauty have kissed.
June 30, Ordinary 13C (Luke 9:51-62; 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21)
Maybe Jesus’ words aren’t about me, my family, or my sacrifices. Maybe they’re about him.
Communion with Christ—and others (John 17:20-26)
“Being in Jesus” is John’s theological language to describe a state of communion essential for our faith.
Seeing myself in the story of the Feast of the Visitation
I've long identified with Mary's fire. Now I want to learn from Elizabeth.
June 23, Ordinary 12C (Luke 8:26-39)
Sometimes the terror we know is more tolerable than the peace we can’t imagine.
Ethical hacks for managing our adolescent technologies
Kate Ott looks at the moral implications of digital language.
Praise among all the people (Psalm 67)
The psalmist calls for something that is hard for us to imagine.
Jesus the (Second Temple-era) Jew
“If we don’t understand the Judaism of Jesus’ time, how can we understand him and his message?”
Immigration and the biblical law of the stranger
In Torah, the stranger appears as a guest to be welcomed, not a problem to be solved.
June 16, Trinity C (John 16:12-15)
To know any truth about God, we must be drawn into the life of the Trinity. But how?
Abraham broke the law, crossing borders and trafficking his wife
Why do we forgive him so much more easily than migrants today?
The extinction of whales, birds, and other creatures that once praised God
God called all of them good. Humans are rapidly destroying them.