Mystical Faith: Finding Unity in Life’s Brokenness

Last updated on: February 17, 2025 at 12:48 pm By Vance Morgan

An Abiding Suspicion . . . A mystic is anyone who has the gnawing suspicion that the apparent discord, brokenness, contradictions, and discontinuities that assault us every day might conceal a hidden unity. Lawrence Kushner Once several years ago Jeanne and I were in the car listening to the hourly news update on NPR. As usual, they were trying to stuff as much horrible news as possible into a three-minute segment. Ebola, ISIS, Zika, Palestinians, Israel, Istanbul, Russia, illegal immigrants,... Read more

Something for Valentine’s Day: Home for Each Other

Last updated on: February 9, 2025 at 12:35 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Human love in the purest forms we can know it, wife and husband, parent and child, has the aura and the immutability of the sacred. Marilynne Robinson I’ve often heard it said (and may have complained myself a few times) that Valentine’s Day both is a creation of Madison Avenue and is primarily for the young. It is indeed a big money-maker, and I remember clearly how Valentine’s rituals were forced on me as early as first grade as we peered into... Read more

Seeing the Soul: Love, Beauty, and the Mystery of Connection

Last updated on: February 11, 2025 at 11:15 am By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Beautiful Souls Because I’m a romantic at heart, I’ll be posting two Valentine’s Day-themed posts this week. It’s my small contribution to pushing back against the disturbing news and events that threaten to overwhelm us every day. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we might ask What makes a human being beautiful? What is it that we love when we love someone? These are questions that Marilynne Robinson explores in her 2020 novel Jack through a very unlikely romance. Both Jack... Read more

An Unexpected Speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast

Last updated on: February 7, 2025 at 12:45 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

The annual National Prayer Breakfast happened last Thursday. I don’t know what happened or what was said, but I can’t get this imagined picture from Facebook out of my mind. My sincere apologies . . . Once when I was the scheduled lector at church, the reading from the Jewish scriptures for the day was from Isaiah 58. The opening lines were SHOUT OUT, DO NOT HOLD BACK! LIFT UP YOUR VOICE LIKE A TRUMPET! Which I did, sort of—as... Read more

Oh Canada!

Last updated on: February 7, 2025 at 9:13 am By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Canada is in the news–unfortunately, not for reasons that they chose. Due to President Orange Menace’s decision to strain relationships with our closest neighbors to the north with a 25% tariff on Candian goods, Canadians have yet another reason to wonder what the hell is wrong with their neighbors to the south. Apparently boos have been filling arenas when the US national anthem is played at NHL hockey games in Canada this week. You really have be deliberately offensive to get... Read more

WTF Would Jesus Do?

Last updated on: February 3, 2025 at 5:31 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

This year Christians are marking the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea–at least those Christians who care about or who are aware of such things. One Sunday not that long ago, I decided to pay close attention to the words of the Nicene Creed when it showed up as it does every Sunday morning in the Episcopal liturgy right after the homily. People usually pay about as much attention to the text of the Creed as they do to the... Read more

The Greek Philosopher You’ve Never Heard Of

Last updated on: February 1, 2025 at 4:44 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

I haven’t had a chance to teach the ancient greats in philosophy in several semesters, largely because I haven’t been teaching in the freshman semesters of the large interdisiplinary program I regularly participate in. I’ve mostly been working in sophomore sections of that program, which means the late 18th century to t0day. The next time I teach ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, I will include a figure that I only became aware of a few years ago: Mediocrates. Mediocrates, who lived around... Read more

The Beatitudes: A Radical Call to Change Everything

Last updated on: January 31, 2025 at 12:48 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Blessed Are . . . The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple happens to fall on this coming Sunday, which means that the usual Epiphany 4 text is being bumped for Presentation-related texts. That’s unfortunate because in the normal run of things, Epiphany 4 is the first of several Sundays that, in Year A at least, take us through the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the Beatitudes. Here’s what I wrote for Epiphany 4 in my... Read more

Wearing the Gospel on your Sleeve

Last updated on: January 27, 2025 at 8:56 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

Rev. Dan Anderson, the pastor of the Lutheran church Jeanne attends and that I am attending more and more frequently, sends out a text with a scripture verse or passage each morning and invites thoughts and reflections. Part of the passage he sent on inauguration day was this verse from 2 Chronicles If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear... Read more

You are Not Alone

Last updated on: January 24, 2025 at 6:48 pm By Vance Morgan

0 Comments

The pastor of the Lutheran church Jeanne attends sends out a scripture verse or passage each morning and invites thoughts and reflections. On Friday his chosen passage was from the prophet Micah, one of the few references from the minor prophets that many if not most persons of Christian faith can quote by heart: Micah 6:8. If you don’t know it by heart, look it up if you know your way around the minor prophets in the Jewish scriptures–it’s well... Read more