Thankful Thanksgiving, Black and Blue Saints

November 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
bread and wine

The Greek word, eucharistia, from which we get the English word, eucharist—the breaking of bread and drinking of wine—means, at its core, thanksgiving. Today, as you eat and drink, remember that you are participating in a sacred feast. Every meal is a eucharist—a cause to give thanks—today, especially. The lines between sacred and secular, between mere food and sacred feast, are blurred in our earliest Christian records. Shortly after Pentecost, the birth of the church, the earliest … [Read more...]

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Stop giving! We have more than enough!

November 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment
offering hands

Ever heard a sermon titled, “Stop giving! We have more than enough!” No? Me neither. That’s why the story of the tabernacle in the book of Exodus is entrancing. (No, I’m not kidding. Entrancing.) The tabernacle was a portable tent the Israelites could put up and take down, like an old-fashioned circus tent, a Bedouin bed-and-breakfast, of sorts, for God. You may not see how entrancing this story is on a first read-through. The instructions on how the tabernacle should be … [Read more...]

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Take a P This Week

November 1, 2013 By 2 Comments
plastic candles

I was sitting with my teaching assistant yesterday at a local coffee haunt near our campus. As we chatted amiably, I mentioned that her workload would be a heck of a lot more next term. “When I’m teaching,” I said. She cocked her head, looked puzzled, and said, “Aren’t you teaching now?” I hesitated and half-laughed, “Oh yeah, but my classes are Hebrew and contemplation, so it doesn’t feel like teaching.” I feel more like a student, translating a language I love and learning to … [Read more...]

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The Spirit & the Dreamer

October 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment
dream

On Wednesday night, my Hebrew class translated Genesis 41—the dead center of the story of Joseph. The word plays in Hebrew are hilarious and skilled, the storyline suspenseful yet playful. In one verse, the seven scrawny cows of Pharaoh’s dream devour seven pleasantly plump cows, but you can’t tell because the skinny cows come to "the innards” (kidneys, livers, tripe—food thought to be delicacies by everyone but me during my Cambridge days), gobble them up, and stay scrawny. As one … [Read more...]

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Animals & Ambiguity: The Spirit & the Flood

October 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Noahs-Ark-by-Edward-Hicks-001

About a month ago, I paused with you to ponder humanity’s first breath, when God stooped and shadowed the face of adam, with knees planted in the mud, hands sinking in the soft, damp earth, lips to lips, mouth to mouth—and blew into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life. On the outskirts of Eden we glimpsed the ambiguity of creation, adam created as dust from the earth (adamah in Hebrew). We came to grips with the unfortunate clash between energy and emptiness, life and death, breath and … [Read more...]

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Spiritchatter–in Hebrew!

September 28, 2013 By 12 Comments
wind

I named this column spiritchatter, and it’s time now to start chattering about the spirit. Let’s start at the very beginning—a lesson in ancient languages. Don’t be intimidated. Get your coffee or tea. Settle down for a few minutes. And plunge in. The Bible was written originally in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. We’ll stick to the Hebrew—the earliest language, and the language of what Jews call Tanak and Christians the Old Testament. The original Hebrew word for “spirit” … [Read more...]

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Order, Chaos and a Night Sky

September 11, 2013 By 4 Comments
stars

I grew up 25 miles east of the World Trade Center, which we called the Twin Towers. My father didn’t much like them. He preferred the stately Empire State Building to their squarish contribution to the New York City skyline. My dad was born in Manhattan. He was four in 1929, when they began construction on the Empire State Building, and six when they completed it in 1931. He lived in Manhattan until the Depression pushed him out to a small, fifth floor apartment in Queens, where he slept in a … [Read more...]

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

September 6, 2013 By 1 Comment
Syria smoke

As Barack Obama, advisers and members of Congress consider how to confront the spiral of violence in Syria, Christians should ask themselves, "Does the Holy Spirit ever inspire violence?" This is a dangerous question, and I am prone to answer it with a loud and clear, "No!" The Spirit inspires peace and love, healing, and prophetic witness, like Martin Luther King Jr.'s famed speech 50 years ago, but the Spirit does not, will not inspire violence. Is my first reaction right? What about the … [Read more...]

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Back to school. Ahead to …?

August 27, 2013 By Leave a Comment
school bus

My son Jeremy and I golfed the other day at a nine hole, par three course. You can’t exactly call it golf. I scored 49 when par was 27. That’s a forgettable enough score. But what I didn’t forget is this. As we walked the course, I felt the slightest touch of coolness in the air. Coolness, in fact, is not quite the right word. It was more like a relenting. I could feel the summer heat—what summer heat we get here in Seattle—giving just a little bit of ground. Relenting. Yes, that’s … [Read more...]

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If You Want to Pass on the Faith, then Learn This By Heart!

August 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Phoebe_Palmer

With Priscilla Pope-Levison. ___________________ She wrote eighteen books, including the runaway international bestseller, The Way of Holiness. She founded one of America’s first urban mission centers in New York City’s Five Points district, described by Charles Dickens as “reeking everywhere with dirt and filth” and popularized by Martin Scorsese’s film, Gangs of New York, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio. She held wildly successful worldwide evangelistic … [Read more...]

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