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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 13, 2016

Is Christian Higher Education Dead? The Debate Continues

So Daniel Kirk has set the terms of the discussion in the wrong way. He...

February 10, 2016

What’s for Lent?

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

December 2015

December 21, 2015

Guns, God, and Advent

We walked in, waited a bit in line, looking at this strange species of human:...

September 2015

September 09, 2015

Does It Matter If You’re Right?

What then characterizes a Spirit-filled church? Not the swaying or swagger of people in motion....

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...

February 2015

February 25, 2015

When Will the Untold Stories End? Another Entry for Black History Month

Guest essay by Priscilla Pope-Levison Around the turn of the nineteenth century, Emma Ray and...

February 08, 2015

The Holy Spirit: so much left to learn!

If you, like me, feel you’ve still got much more to learn—much more to experience,...

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...

January 20, 2015

Life After a Shooting: The Metamorphosis of a College Campus

The real test of a community is not its immediate reaction to grief -- but...

December 2014

December 10, 2014

The Curious Case of the “Kick Ass” Messiah

You see? There was no single Jewish expectation for the messiah at the time of...

October 2014

October 13, 2014

Jottings from Assisi on Jon Sweeney’s When Saint Francis Saved the Church

I read this book about St. Francis of Assisi all wrong. I should have read...

September 2014

September 04, 2014

Ebola, Faith, and Friends of Ours

Yesterday, Anderson Cooper interviewed Nancy Writebol and her husband. Nancy is an American ebola survivor...

August 2014

August 11, 2014

Mark Driscoll Needs a Prophet of His Own

So here's what I suggest. Mark Driscoll should take some of his royalties and hire...

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 16, 2014

Doves and Kisses–A Reading on Betrayal

As I read Psalm 55, I couldn't shake the rhythm of betrayal in the gospel...

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...

March 2014

March 17, 2014

Cars, Planes, and Gospel Grenades: the Technological Tactics of Women Evangelists

These largely unsung entrepreneurial women evangelists resolved to settle down and build institutions, often financing...

March 10, 2014

Making America Christian: a forgotten history

Two decades ago, as I did my class prep for an introductory lecture on American...

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...

October 2013

October 19, 2013

The Spirit & the Dreamer

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

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...