If there’s one thing that defines our era, it’s the way that people like to make fun of other people. Ridicule is the favorite pastime of the social media age. The most clicked-on youtube videos are the ones that give us an opportunity to laugh at people for looking stupid. We make memes with Willy Wonka zinging the idiots we define ourselves against. Ridicule is great for high-fiving the people who already agree with you about who the dumbasses are,... Read more
My sons wanted to tell spooky stories last night. Isaiah went first, then Matthew, then me. I was just making my story up as I went along. And they were editing my story whenever they wanted to add a plot twist. So because of an unexpected plot twist, I said that a character named Johnny must have been possessed by a demon. And Isaiah asked me what does possessed mean and what does demon mean. And so I said that... Read more
This video was recorded in Tel Aviv by Ha’aertz journalist Haim Har-Zahav. The lyrics of the chant start off with an attack against the Israeli Arab lawmaker Ahmed Tibi saying that he’s a terrorist and he needs to have his papers taken away from him. Then it comes to a line that is chilling to the bone: “There’s no more school in Gaza; there are no children left. Ole! Ole!” The full transcript is provided by Ali Abunimah. I know... Read more
This picture is a renegade chamomile plant that came up through a crack in our driveway last year in Virginia. It came to mind as I was contemplating a recent lectionary gospel reading on Jesus’ parable of the weeds from Matthew 13:24-30. We discussed it last Sunday night at our Wesley Foundation meeting and Monday at an ecumenical Eucharist gathering I’ve been attending called the Worship Society of St. Polycarp. Weeds are an interesting phenomenon, because how we define what... Read more
We live in a world that loves to draw lines between “us” and “them.” This line-drawing has grown very loud in recent days between supporters of the two sides in the Israel/Gaza conflict. Either it’s God’s chosen people vs. a degenerate race of terrorists or it’s the colonial racist imperialists vs. their oppressed victims. Both easy narratives are deeply unjust to the history of the conflict. Many evangelical Christians in my generation “stand with Gaza” at least partly because our... Read more
A couple of weeks ago, Brian Zahnd preached a sermon on the healing of Naaman the Syrian commander by the Israelite prophet Elisha. He pointed out that Naaman was the head of an army that had been at war with the Israelites for years, so the analogy today would be if an Israelite prophet had healed the commander of Hamas. Zahnd made a profound statement as part of his sermon that I’ve been contemplating over the past couple of weeks:... Read more
Children get in the way. It’s what they do. My children get in my way all the time whenever I want to have a simple Gnostic life where I don’t have to acknowledge the physical world outside of my laptop. My youngest son is the worst. He’ll say things like “Daddy, I just want to spend some time with you,” and then I can’t just turn back to whatever I was doing. I was running on the beach with him... Read more
Today’s Daily Office reading included two verses from a psalm that comprise an awesome prayer that I think Christians should be praying continually: “Test me, O Lord, and try me; examine my heart and my mind. For your mercy is before my eyes so I will walk in your truth” (Psalm 26:2-3). This prayer summarizes what it means to live with integrity and illustrates how utterly we need God to make that possible. (more…) Read more
In this week’s lectionary epistle reading, Paul writes that “by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh, so that the justice of the law could be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). Many evangelical Christians presume that for God to “condemn sin in the flesh” refers to the condemnation of Jesus by His Father on... Read more
I remember a few years ago when Facebook was young, people used to play a manipulative game where they’d write on their status updates something like, “I’ve been a Democrat/Republican for 50 years, but after what ____ did yesterday, I’ve never been more outraged in my life and I’ve decided that I quit. I’m going over to the other side. ” I never really followed closely enough to see if the same person melodramatically quit the same political party with... Read more
Mercy Not Sacrifice
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