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2022-08-30T06:46:11-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Things Change: ‘The first will be last, and the last will be first’

Last updated on: August 30, 2022 at 6:46 am By Tricia Gates Brown

Everything we read, including everything we read in the Bible, is colored by culture, and in this week’s lectionary gospel (Luke 14:1, 7-14) we certainly encounter cultural elements I’ll skip over. I want to focus on something else—specifically, an idea that appears repeatedly in the teachings of Jesus; the idea that ‘the first will be last and the last will be first,’ or as it’s stated in this passage: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble... Read more

2022-09-02T06:03:40-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Animals teach us about God

Last updated on: September 2, 2022 at 6:03 am By Tricia Gates Brown

Of late, some of my closest companions are animals—several cats and one dog. With a few, I am close in ways I am close to few others. Few—or none—of my friends do I kiss and nuzzle and stroke and tell, “I love you so much; you are so precious to me…” (on and on gag infinitum) with regularity. At least in western culture, effusive affection isn’t the language of relationships, apart from those with young children and between couples en... Read more

Contemplative

Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day

Relationships

2022-08-24T05:13:42-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Immigration, Illegality, and Mercy

Last updated on: August 24, 2022 at 5:13 am By Tricia Gates Brown

This week’s lectionary gospel (Luke 13:10-17) shows, along with other healing stories, how Jesus taught mercy over concerns like being correct, or keeping laws, or being “righteous.” To Jesus, the freedom and relief of the woman he illegally healed on the Sabbath—a woman trapped in suffering for eighteen years—ranked so far above any law that Jesus blasted the leader who reminded him his action was illegal. He says, You show mercy to your donkey on the Sabbath. Why wouldn’t I... Read more

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2022-09-02T06:08:32-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How I Pray {Part Three}

Last updated on: September 2, 2022 at 6:08 am By Tricia Gates Brown

“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” Frederick Buechner (“Grace,” in Wishful Thinking) Recently my friend Ali introduced me to this description of prayer: “where the this meets the more-than-this.” Of late, I’ve also heard expressions of fear from different friends. Fear of physical vulnerability in the face of looming medical tests. Fear of losing a partner seriously struggling with illness. Fear of financial insecurity in the face of job loss. Fear of threatening... Read more

Contemplative

2022-09-02T06:04:25-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Learning to Listen to my Life: In Memoriam Frederick Buechner

Last updated on: September 2, 2022 at 6:04 am By Tricia Gates Brown

No author has impacted my life as has Frederick Buechner. Not only have I read all but two or three of his copious writings (two of his novels are among my ‘top five’: Godric and The Final Beast), but he inspired me to become a writer. Finding and reading him changed my life—the honesty, the remarkable loveliness of his writing filled me with aspiration. It still does. And the wide-open, not fussy, warm-and-hospitable God Buechner portrayed made me want to... Read more

Contemplative

2022-09-02T06:07:58-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How I Pray {Part Two}

Last updated on: September 2, 2022 at 6:07 am By Tricia Gates Brown

One day last week, two friends wrote out of the blue to express that they were thinking of me. Besides being moved, I was struck by how thinking of someone in this way is a kind of prayer. One friend said “I am holding you in the light, as the Quakers say,” describing a Quaker understanding of prayer. In my view, when someone comes into focus in your heart and mind and you surround them with the warm glow of... Read more

Contemplative

Relationships and Religion

2022-09-02T06:06:55-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Vote for small things: On school board elections and showing up

Last updated on: September 2, 2022 at 6:06 am By Tricia Gates Brown

I once heard the late commentator Mark Shields describe democracy as ‘the way we resolve our conflicts without using violence’ (paraphrase). This description is wise. It also renders voting an ethical or moral act. If people of faith are called to be peacemakers, and voting—along with other mechanisms of active democracy—is how we avoid violence with our neighbors, we are called to engage democracy. A roiling conflict in our country is the waging of culture wars in schools, in part... Read more

Contemplative

Politics and Religion

2022-10-14T16:46:18-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How I Pray {Part One}

Last updated on: October 14, 2022 at 4:46 pm By Tricia Gates Brown

I’ve had a complicated relationship with prayer, increasingly resisting conceptions of prayer that put control in our hands. Recently I preached on a lectionary passage about prayer (Luke 11:1-13) that could be construed this way. It includes an interesting parable about a man who needs bread, so he pounds on the door of his friend until his friend finally gets up and provides it. The story obviously commends persistence. Then the writer of Luke combines the parable with Jesus’ teaching... Read more

Contemplative

2022-08-06T05:45:57-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What I can say wholeheartedly

Last updated on: August 6, 2022 at 5:45 am By Tricia Gates Brown

Let’s start with what I can say with whole heart. The words appear in the prayer we say, in my tradition, post-communion: Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ. These words, I adore—wholeheartedly. They resonate in me with longing to give myself in love for this world—not “this world” in the abstract, but in love for my partner, the animals... Read more

2022-09-02T06:05:05-07:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Reluctant Spokesperson {Part 2}

Last updated on: September 2, 2022 at 6:05 am By Tricia Gates Brown

{See previous column “Reluctant Spokesperson {Part 1}” for this column’s set-up.} Rarely do we stop to scrutinize how our actions have been shaped by the traditions we unconsciously participate in. Rarely do we ask why we flock en masse to see the latest Marvel action movie, why we so energetically follow sports seasons and favorite teams, or why we buy so many Christmas presents for our kids. In each case, we operate as adherents to the rules of dominant traditions—we... Read more

Contemplative

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