But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails [...]

We were visiting with friends this weekend and comparing notes about worship.  One of our friends noted that a non-denominational church near them offered an “informal” worship service free of liturgical forms.  “We just can’t compete, given the formality of our approach to worship,” our friend observed. I can’t speak for my Christian sisters and [...]

There isn’t just one prodigal in the parable of the prodigal son. There are two. One leaves home. The other stays home. The first can’t believe that God can love him. The other believes that God can’t love him — without making sure that it’s the other son God doesn’t love. Neither of them “gets” [...]

This year, more than any in the past, I have noticed a lot of nonsense about Lent.  The number of silly recommendations for its observance seems to have grown exponentially: Care for the poor Give up plastic bags Reduce your carbon footprint to zero  Don’t misunderstand me.  I am not arguing that any of these [...]

Discerning the will of God would be a simple matter, if life itself were simple — “simple,” meaning uncomplicated, easily understood, consisting of one dimension. If the particulars of our lives were nothing more than a series of choices that arose out of circumstances orchestrated by God — if the choices made were nothing more [...]

I had a conversation with our dog the other day.  She was wandering off to another corner of the house and I asked her, “Hilda, what are you doing?” She responded with remarkable clarity, “Dog…dog is what I do.” It strikes me that dogs are utterly and completely at home in their dog-ness.  They aren’t [...]

Musician and singer Marc Cohn has me thinking this week about the spiritual value of friends who do more than “hang out” or spend time with us.  An important role in any spiritual friendship is the role of witness.  Someone who allows us to name our struggles, explore their interior, and testify to the efforts [...]

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observes, “The heart of all Jewish festivals can be summed up like this: They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.” Eating as affirmation: Affirmation of God’s goodness, affirmation of life, affirmation of life’s goodness. Small wonder, then, that festivals and eating are so much a part of religious celebrations and [...]