Today is the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost; the gospel reading from Mark tells the story of John the Baptist’s imprisonment and execution, the final chapter in John’s story that was an important part of both Advent and Epiphany. Here is my entry for this Sunday in my book A Year of Faith and Philosophy that I am putting the final touches on: In a second season episode of “The Chosen,” Jesus has a private conversation with his relative John the Baptist. Jesus... Read more
I ran an informal experiment on Facebook the other day, the point of which was to see how quickly it would take people to get upset and defensive over something that, arguably, is not worth getting upset or defensive about. I posted There are two kinds of people. People who back into parking spots and normal people. That’s it. I could, of course, have posed the issue more neutrally: Do you back into a parking spot or do you pull... Read more
The end of my revision of my book A Year of Faith and Philosophy is in sight–I hope to have it my editor and the publisher by August 1, two weeks before the deadline. Here is what I wrote for Ordinary Time 25, which falls at some point during November. The Ordinary Time 25 gospel readings draw our attention to the importance of using what one has to further the kingdom of God rather than asking “I’m only one person—what can... Read more
I’m back! After a two week break it’s good to be blogging again. As I continue to put my book A Year of Faith and Philosophy into final shape, I find that I’m doing some new writing in addition to editing and reorganizing. Here’s what I wrote for one of the later Sundays in Ordinary Time. In the Ordinary Time 18 Year B reading from Mark 9, Jesus returns to his lesson that the last will be first in response to the... Read more
Jeanne and I went to the Auschwitz exhibition in Boston yesterday–it’s there for the rest of the summer. If you live in the northeast, you should go. The subtitle of the exhibition is “Not Long Ago. Not Far Away.” It was powerful and sobering, as one might expect. I have taught a colloquium called “Love Never Fails: Grace, Truth, and Freedom in the Nazi Era” with a colleague and friend from the history department five times over the last dozen... Read more
In the honors interdisciplinary program I teach in, my colleagues and I have chosen over the past two years to include a selection of material from A Listening Wind: Native Literature from the Southeast, a collection of stories, fables, myths, and poems from Cherokee literature. Among many candidates, my favorite of the several dozen short texts we assigned is Hasting Shade’s “The Spirit of an Ancestor.” On the most basic level, this is a simple “coming-of-age” story. The author grew... Read more
Today is the Fifth Sunday after Easter in the lectionary, including a number of familiar stories and texts. Here is the section for this Sunday from my new book that I am putting the finishing touches on this summer before delivering the final version to the publisher in August. Enjoy! The Ordinary Time 5 Year C gospel from Luke is one of Jesus’ most beloved parables. Is there any parable more familiar than the story of the Good Samaritan? And... Read more
A shorter version of this essay from Fall 2021 will be the entry for the Third Sunday after Pentecost in my upcoming book. One of the lectionary readings for that day is “the fruit of the spirit” from Galatians 5. It is mid-November; the leaves on the large oak tree in the yard diagonally behind us have fallen, 90% of them in our back yard. That means that this weekend, weather permitting, will be at least partially dedicated to back... Read more
As I work on putting the final “Ordinary Time” chapter of my book A Year of Faith and Philosophy into shape for submission to my editor, I have been constantly reminded of surprising things about Jesus that many Christians either don’t know or choose to ignore. Here’s an essay from a decade ago about Jesus and family values . . . enjoy! I was angry with my father for a lot of reasons over the years, some justified and some not.... Read more
Tomorrow is Jeanne’s birthday, and it’s a big one! As she’s been telling everyone, she is turning sixty-nine on 6/9. Since we will be on Long Island celebrating with family and friends tomorrow, here is her her annual birthday blog post a day early! Are you into Enneagrams? Over the past few years I have heard people throwing their Enneagram number around in general conversation with more and more regularity, in much the same way that people have shared their... Read more
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