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March 2026

March 22, 2026

Can These Bones Live?

Today is Lent 5--the gospel text is John 11, John's account of the raising of...

February 2026

February 11, 2026

The National Prayer Breakfast Gets an Unexpected Visitor

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

February 08, 2026

La Bella Luna: A Lunar Spirituality

Shortly before the 2013 conclave that would elect him as Pope Francis I, then Cardinal...

October 2025

October 26, 2025

Be Merciful to Me, A Sinner . . .

Today's gospel reading reminds me of an August day several years ago when the small...

June 2025

June 22, 2025

As the Deer Longs for Streams of Water

Today's lectionary readings contain two of my favorites, both from the Jewish scriptures. The story...

June 03, 2025

The Terrain of the Sacred

In her spiritual memoir Still, Lauren Winner tells the story of a conversation between poet...

February 2025

February 23, 2025

What Happens When We Pray?

In her spiritual memoir Still, Lauren Winner begins a brief chapter on prayer by noting...

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...

January 2025

January 07, 2025

My Word for 2025

Anne Lamott tells the story of an older woman who, along with other active geriatric...

November 2024

November 12, 2024

Darkness, Silence, and Prayer

One Sunday some time ago as I was listening to our local NPR station in...

August 2024

August 25, 2024

What To Do with a Difficult Teaching

Today is the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Here is my entry for this Sunday in...

May 2024

May 19, 2024

The Holy Spirit’s Coming Out Party–A Pentecost Reflection

Two year ago I had the privilege of giving the Pentecost Sunday sermon at the...

May 16, 2024

When God Sends Us the Bird

This coming Sunday is Pentecost, a celebration on when the Holy Spirit descended on a...

February 2024

February 25, 2024

What If I Don’t Want to Take Up My Cross?

Last week I introduced a bunch of honors sophomores to Dietrich Bonhoeffer's distinction between "Cheap...

February 08, 2024

Doing Good for the Sake of Goodness

Last Monday's text in my sophomore Honors seminar, a course that spans literature, history, theology...

January 2024

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 04, 2024

Why January 6th is Important

Three years ago this coming Saturday, I was sitting in the recliner in our little...

December 2023

December 31, 2023

A Prayer for the New Year

So here we are at the end of yet another year. Kate Bowler, who all...

November 2023

November 07, 2023

Disability Theology

One of the speakers at the Evolving Faith 2023 conference that Jeanne and I attended...

July 2023

July 02, 2023

Can We Negotiate With God?

Today's reading from the Jewish scriptures is Genesis 22, the well-known and infamous story of...

June 2023

June 20, 2023

Loving Your Life

I have a good friend and teaching colleague who told me the other day that...

June 06, 2023

Ordinary Lives in Ordinary Time

So here we are in Ordinary Time, the longest liturgical season that will stretch until...

March 2023

March 19, 2023

The Thick Darkness Where God Is

Most everyone is familiar with the opening lines of Genesis, where we are told that...

February 2023

February 04, 2023

What Can We Do Now That There Is No God?

One of the matters I am paying close attention to this semester, as I prepare...

January 2023

January 17, 2023

The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me . . .

Spring semester classes start today. One of my courses is a team-taught colloquium with a...

January 15, 2023

Mansplaining in the Bible

At a department meeting not long ago, our department chair wondered whether it might be...

October 2022

October 22, 2022

What is Prayer Supposed to Accomplish?

Today's gospel lectionary reading reminds me of an August day several years ago when the...

October 01, 2022

Having the Faith of a Weed

In today's gospel reading from Luke, Jesus' disciples make a very simple request: "Increase our...

September 2022

September 20, 2022

Some Stories are Not Redemptive. But They All are Important

The first reading assignment in my General Ethics class this semester was Kate Jennings’ 2002...

August 2022

August 27, 2022

What the Wounds on Jesus’ Resurrected Body Tell Us

I consider myself to be well informed and well read, but every once in a...

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