I’ve lost track of the number of blogs that I follow, and there is one reason that makes this possible from a time management perspective: Google Reader. Perhaps you’ve noticed that many popular blogs feature an odd orange icon or allude to subscribing to their “RSS Feed.” “What is RSS,” you ask? Well, RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, blogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS... Read more
I recently had the chance to catch up in person with a friend who wants to plant a church at the intersection of the Emergent Church Movement and the Creation Spirituality of Matthew Fox, Thomas Berry, and others. In addition to some of the obvious choices, she asked me to recommend some resources that came to mind, and I’m sharing them here for others who may be interested. Possible Congregational Studies The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism by Andrew Harvey... Read more
My short answer is yes and no. On one hand, yes, there will be female Roman Catholic priests in my lifetime because there already are. As my fellow Patheos blogger Tony Jones has noted, there already are “renegade Roman Catholic priests who just happen to be women.” On the other hand, a recent New York Times article on “Catholic Church Unveils New Home for Ex-Episcopalians” perhaps tips the Vatican’s hand for the foreseeable future: “Since the Vatican’s grant of an exemption from... Read more
Gold: by far my most viewed blog of this past year was “Four Spiritual Practices for Preaching on Matthew 25.” Silver: second place goes to “Jesus’ Seed Parable and Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation.” Bronze: the final top contender was “Jesus, a Donkey, and Jon Stewart’s Rally for Sanity.” Thanks, everyone, for reading. (Also, just FYI, the above list was generated from Google Analytics, an incredibly handy — and free! — tool that all bloggers should embed in their websites... Read more
Thursday, December 22 is Winter Solstice: the shortest span of daylight hours and the longest night of the year. In my neck of the woods, this means “The sun is above the horizon for approximately 9 hours, 26 minutes. Sunrise occurs at 7:24 a.m. and sunset at 4:50 p.m.” On this day with more than 15 hours of darkness, perhaps Paul Simon offers us the most lyrical invitation for how we might begin to allow ourselves to savor a Soulful Solstice. Simon... Read more
(1) NPR: Religion – A few years ago my car radio was almost always tuned to NPR. More recently I have taken to listening selectively to my favorite NPR segments. Since I’m a huge religion nerd, I love being able to listen to the religion-themed excerpts of “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered,” and other NPR programs without necessarily having to listen to each of those hour-long shows each day. (2) Homebrewed Christianity – An astonishing number of great interviews with world-class theologians.... Read more
Jesus clearly says the kingdom of heaven is among us (Luke 17:21) or “at hand” (Matthew 3:2, 4:17). One wonders why we made it into a reward system for later, or as Brian McLaren calls it, “an evacuation plan for the next world.” Maybe it was easier to obey laws and practice rituals for later than to actually be transformed now. The price for real transformation is high. It means that we have to change our loyalties from power, success,... Read more
Dear Lowe’s: Islamophobia is as equally reprehensible as anti-Semitism. Both are forms of racism and bigotry. Christians must stop confusing Christianity with Christian Supremacy. I wish I could force both the management of Lowe’s as well as the protesters to read Philip Jenkins’ important new book Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can’t Ignore the BIBLE’S Violent Verses: Commands to kill, to commit ethnic cleansing, to institutionalize segregation, to hate and fear other races and religions — all are in the Bible,... Read more
During the season of Epiphany (basically from the beginning of 2012 through Ash Wednesday), I’m planning a sermon series on the Didache. I’ve read the primary text previously a few times as well as a pieces of secondary literature, but I still don’t feel like I have a firm enough grasp on this important early document. I figure preaching through the Didache is a great opportunity to correct this gap. As part of my sermon preparation, I plan to revisit Tony... Read more
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Discernment: A Spiritual Practice for Preaching 1 Samuel 3 (A Progressive Christian Lectionary Commentary for January 15, 2012)
In this passage, God speaks to Samuel four times. The first three times, Samuel does not know that the voice he hears is the voice of God. He mistakenly assumes that his mentor, Eli, is calling him. As we read in verse seven, “Samuel did not yet know God, and the word of God had not yet been revealed to him.” Eventually, however, Eli realizes what is happening, and equips the young boy Samuel with what he needs to identify... Read more