Holy Hating
There is nothing bad about a safe, warm environment. Nor is there anything bad about being polite and kind. But that is not what Jesus was all about, not the vision Jesus has for his...
Repairers and Rebuilders
We are a people of divisions, breaches. As with Isaiah’s people many, perhaps all, of our breaches are at root our failure, our refusal, to see those who are different from us as equal, as...
Enough
In Hosea’s time things were bad: priests and religious leaders were running amok and exploiting the poor and the weak—interpreting scripture to justify their own prejudices and desires, creating rules to ensure they remained on...
Unequal and UnGodly
Amos was living in a society where the gap between rich and poor was massive. Amos can clearly see that the health of the market, the health of the few, has become far more important...
God Without Borders
God is always in the last place we expect. In the last person we expect. This puzzles and, if we are honest, offends and annoys us. We like setting up boundaries and labels.
God the What?
The church had huge fights early on about what exactly the Trinity was and how we describe it. And not surprisingly, in cultures that were patriarchal, and councils that were made up entirely of men,...
Hold the Note
Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns. And I can’t imagine they were whispered songs but loud, strong hymns of faith, deliverance, freedom. “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around”. Songs sung while shackled...
Learned Ignorance
Despite the fact that many people assume I must have a good idea of what exactly life after life looks like, I really don’t. Even Jesus didn’t really say too much about it. So what...
Beginning with Breakfast
This Gospel breakfast story is absolutely full of clues for all those times we are stuck in the sea in the middle of the night, afraid we have come to the end of something with...
Dazzling Darkness
Whatever the resurrection was and is—its fullness lies in holy darkness, shielded from our eyes. All we can know is that somehow, in an ancient tomb on a dark night, God worked in secret to...