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Select a Month August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 March 2017 February 2017 February 2016 December 2015 September 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013

August 2017

August 25, 2017

Hurricane Heroes and the Book of Exodus

With Hurricane Harvey barreling down on the Texas coast, with Galvestonians and Houstonians making their...

July 2017

July 20, 2017

The Summer of ’17: Jacob’s Ladder and Esau’s Tragedy

Every year, without fail, we sang the chorus Jacob’s Ladder at church camp. Sung by...

June 2017

June 22, 2017

The Summer of ’17: a Summer of Trysts and Turns

The lectionary last week ... Wait! Did I start a blog post with the word lectionary? How...

February 2016

February 10, 2016

What’s for Lent?

Would someone want to join me here, in my interior, in my soul, and cozy...

August 2015

August 12, 2015

Sanity About the Spirit: Not in 1 Corinthians!

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians doesn’t contain, then, what we hope it promises: a...

June 2015

June 01, 2015

Pope Francis on How to Prepare a Sermon

The pope and I agree. He's in very good company! (Okay, I'll admit, it goes...

May 2015

May 19, 2015

The Promise of Pentecost You May Not Know

In the days prior to that first Pentecost, Jesus’ followers were huddled together, gathered around...

January 2015

January 26, 2015

I Dare You! A pre-Lenten Challenge

What struck me in the aftermath was how much—I think this was genuine—the Seahawk players...

December 2014

December 23, 2014

Before Bethlehem

Christians have a history of getting our relationship with Jews all tangled up in self-interest....

June 2014

June 26, 2014

A Wee Little Man and a Big Insight

When I put these together, I saw something glaring. My actions were exactly backwards, a...

May 2014

May 21, 2014

Garage Sale Antics and the Church in Antioch: Reflections on Generosity

Their giving wasn’t determined by how much was needed but by how much they had...

April 2014

April 10, 2014

Intimacy with God and a Blindfolded Boy

Then on Thursday night, in a nondescript room in the Columbus Ohio convention center, I...

February 2014

February 14, 2014

Some Pretty Good Advice from Ecclesiastes for Valentine’s–and Every Other–Day

That rundown Ramada Inn is where she first slipped her hand along the back of...

January 2014

January 19, 2014

My Dad’s Old Purple Dinosaur Tie and the Creation-evolution Debate

Regardless of your point of view—Jewish or Christian, secular or spiritual, liberal or conservative—it’s invariably...

January 06, 2014

An Ambiguous Little Trickle of the Holy Spirit

This sense of yearning — or is it inadequacy? — for something new, something spectacular,...

December 2013

December 12, 2013

Simeon’s Song and the Clarity of Christmas

If you want an actual model for receiving the guidance of the holy spirit, look...

November 2013

November 28, 2013

Thankful Thanksgiving, Black and Blue Saints

The Greek word, eucharistia, from which we get the English word, eucharist—the breaking of bread...

November 11, 2013

Stop giving! We have more than enough!

For now, today, to get a sense of this scene, imagine walking into synagogue on...

November 01, 2013

Take a P This Week

Less than one percent of your day given to contemplation. And that less-than-one-percent will reorient...

October 2013

October 19, 2013

The Spirit & the Dreamer

I think too often Christians believe the holy spirit begins its best work when the...

October 12, 2013

Animals & Ambiguity: The Spirit & the Flood

The Bible doesn’t excise the ambiguity from life, not even when its stories are about...

September 2013

September 06, 2013

Does the Holy Spirit Inspire Violence? Obama, Syria, and the Days Ahead

Are the people of Syria so destitute, so cornered by chemical weapons, so oppressed that...

August 2013

August 09, 2013

Passing on the Faith in a Makeshift Choir Stall

There we were, together, a white twelve-year-old boy with an utter incapacity to sing the...

August 01, 2013

Thinking About Sex Lately

Good sex is a matter of discipline, which can’t start early enough because, hope as...