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April 2026

April 19, 2026

Teachers with Guns

In my ethics class last Thursday we began our final unit of the semester: Gun...

March 2026

March 29, 2026

A Palm Sunday Reflection: Blessed is He Who Comes

Today is Palm Sunday, one of the most dramatic days on the liturgical calendar. But...

September 2025

September 11, 2025

When Will We Get Tired of Hating People? A 9/11 reflection

Everyone beyond a certain age can remember clearly what they were doing twenty-four years ago...

August 2025

August 31, 2025

A Labor Day Reflection on Jesus and Capitalism

There are a couple of sayings attributed to Jesus that Christians often use when attempting...

June 2025

June 08, 2025

Pentecost: Big Bird is In the House

The Day of Pentecost, next to Christmas and Easter, is undoubtedly the biggest single day...

February 2025

February 09, 2025

An Unexpected Speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast

The annual National Prayer Breakfast happened last Thursday. I don't know what happened or what...

December 2024

December 27, 2024

Will we ever fill the hungry with good things?

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Holy Innocents on the liturgical calendar, the day that...

December 22, 2024

The Fourth Sunday of Advent: Mother Mary Comes To Me

Three years ago I had the privilege of giving the Advent 4 sermon at Trinity...

December 20, 2024

During this Christmas Season, Don’t be Stupid

In December of 1942, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a Christmas letter to a number of his...

December 15, 2024

Why Faith Can’t Avoid Being Political

I've been steering away from politics here ever since last month's election and intend to...

November 2024

November 15, 2024

Christianity and Power

So how are you doing ten days after the election? In the wee hours of...

October 2024

October 01, 2024

Living the Social Gospel

Next week in the interdisciplinary program I teach in will be "Social Gospel" week. Students...

September 2024

September 15, 2024

Comfort is vastly overrated

In the interdisciplinary, team-taught course I am participating in this semester, we spent our second...

September 03, 2024

In all they do, they prosper

There are two kinds of living things. They are distinguished by the strategies they have...

August 2024

August 04, 2024

What Is This? A story about change

Organized religion often is a source of packaged answers and comfortable solutions to important questions...

July 2024

July 14, 2024

The Head of John the Baptist

Today is the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost; the gospel reading from Mark tells the story...

May 2024

May 31, 2024

You Always Have the Poor

As I work through my book under contract getting it into shape for the editor...

April 2024

April 28, 2024

Your Comfort Zone Is Not a Sacred Space

In an interview with CNN a few Easters ago, Barbara Brown Taylor said this about...

April 14, 2024

Designing God

Voltaire once wrote that if God did not exist, we would have to invent him....

April 02, 2024

The Apocalypse During Apocalyptic Times

It is interesting, perhaps fitting, that the first class in my team-taught "Apocalypse: colloquium after...

March 2024

March 19, 2024

On Being a Person

In her award-winning trilogy of novels about Thomas Cromwell, the consigliere and fixer for Henry...

February 2024

February 22, 2024

Did Jesus Misread Human Nature?

The Gospel reading for last Sunday, the First Sunday of Lent, is the account of...

February 20, 2024

The Difference Between Pardoning and Forgiveness

On this day after Presidents Day I'm thinking about a specific power that presidents uniquely...

February 18, 2024

Who Would Jesus Bomb? A President’s Day Reflection

Tomorrow is President's Day, which for all college professors means--as do all Monday holidays in...

February 15, 2024

A Terrible Beauty

The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper. I cannot quite make...

February 04, 2024

Can We Trust Each Other? A Reflection on Human Nature

The other day upon returning from her early morning visit to the gym, the first...

January 2024

January 23, 2024

What Exactly is a Freelance Christian?

I have been told on occasion by readers of this blog that "Freelance Christianity" is...

January 18, 2024

Real Wives of the Ancient Middle East

Last Sunday's lectionary reading from the Hebrew Scriptures is the story of God's call of...

January 07, 2024

When Things Got Real Between John the Baptist and Jesus

The gospel lectionary reading for the First Sunday of Epiphay traditionally is one version of...

November 2023

November 22, 2023

I Don’t Think That Parable Means What You Think It Means

Simone Weil once observed in a notebook entry that “the stories of miracles complicate everything.”...

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