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May 2020

May 05, 2020

Coronavirus Seclusion and “Amazing Grace”

In the interdisciplinary program I teach in and used to direct, the first semester faculty...

May 02, 2020

Sheep in the Streets: A Reflection for Good Shepherd Sunday

As horrific and tragic as most Covid-19 stories are, every once in a while these...

April 2020

April 30, 2020

We are Nothing but Wind

I am not a complainer by nature. My wife, my family, and my friends would...

April 23, 2020

Jesus, Cleopas, and George Have a Conversation About Hope

“Now abide faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.” These words...

April 22, 2020

On Earth Day, I’m Wondering: Is Planet Earth a Loser?

My youngest son was born in 1981 and grew up as Americans began, for the...

April 18, 2020

9/11, the Coronavirus, and Becoming a Better Person

Everyone beyond a certain age can remember clearly what they were doing eighteen-and-a-half years ago...

April 07, 2020

God is a Question. What is the Answer?

In my General Ethics course, we just completed a unit called “Does God have anything...

March 2020

March 31, 2020

Don’t Be Afraid to Die

Last Sunday was the Fifth Sunday of Lent; we are heading directly for Palm Sunday,...

March 20, 2020

If you want to witness the resurrection, then be the resurrection

Lead on King Eternal, the day of march has come Henceforth in fields of conquest Thy...

March 16, 2020

Managing Our Lives Without God

God would have us know that we must live as people who manage our lives...

March 14, 2020

Jesus’ Advice Concerning the Coronavirus: Don’t Be Afraid of Tomorrow

If there ever was a time when Jesus’ suggestion that we should “not worry about...

March 10, 2020

Do You Love Your Life?

Although I read all the time--I once told my ophthalmologist that that I read for...

March 05, 2020

When I’m Sixty-Four

"Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?" Paul McCartney,...

March 02, 2020

God Is Doing the Best that God Can Do

Frank Tupper, an important Baptist theologian who argued that God is in control of very...

February 2020

February 26, 2020

What I Learned When I Visited Cuba

Cuba and Fidel Castro are in the news, as Bernie Sanders seeks to explain why...

February 18, 2020

When an Important Memory Turns Out to be Wrong

My youngest son, Justin, has a remarkable memory--for, as he puts it, "totally useless facts."...

February 15, 2020

The Prophet Isaiah Goes to the National Prayer Breakfast

I was the scheduled lector at the 8:00 service last Sunday, the first time I...

February 13, 2020

“Custodians of each other’s well-being”–A Reflection for Valentine’s Week

Human love in the purest forms we can know it, wife and husband, parent and...

February 11, 2020

Spiritual Punctuation

In my life-long spiritual journey, the decade of my twenties was the charismatic decade. No,...

January 2020

January 30, 2020

Best of 2019 #1: I am a Liberal Because I am a Christian

Last April, I decided to write an essay exploring something that I have been saying...

January 21, 2020

As the Impeachment Trial Begins, Don’t Forget to Think–Even When It’s Hard

Today, the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump begins in earnest. As we...

January 12, 2020

What Really Happened that Day at the Jordan River?

The season of Epiphany, squeezed in between the Christmas season and Lent, is the annual...

December 2019

December 31, 2019

Letting God Creep In

About halfway through his lengthy essay, Schjeldahl notes his agreement with one of Weil’s...

December 12, 2019

“It has been done in your name”: A Dickensian Tale of “Good Christians” Doing Harm

One of my teaching teammates this past semester in the interdisciplinary course I regularly participate...

December 10, 2019

Living in a Minor Key

At some point early in their musical training, all serious musicians are introduced to the...

November 2019

November 19, 2019

Don’t Worry, Be Hopeful . . . and Get to Work

In the liturgical cycle, we are headed toward a new year that begins on the...

November 17, 2019

White Privilege and Jesus

In my General Ethics class, my students and I have just finished a three week...

November 14, 2019

Political Jesus: No, it’s not an oxymoron

In a well-known and often-quoted passage from the Jewish scriptures, the prophet Micah asks a...

November 12, 2019

One Wife for Seven Brothers: An important lesson from a strange story

A strange story from Luke's gospel was the gospel for the day last Sunday. It...

November 10, 2019

Christianity is not a brand or a demographic

In “Slander,” from her latest collection of essays, What Are We Doing Here?, Marilynne Robinson writes...

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