Some years ago I preached a sermon entitled “Pain is Inevitable, but Misery is Optional.” I thought about that yesterday as I preached about the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It is an odd story to read at the end of Lent. We are trying to focus on the passion of Christ, and here is a story or resurrection two weeks early. The truth is, although Lazarus was given more time on earth, he, like everyone did... Read more

Easter is very late this year. For the most part, that makes church life easier. More of the country gets a taste of spring, which makes Easter and resurrection more tangible realities. Good Friday is two weeks from today. I should confess that this hasn’t been my best Lent. I’ve done pretty well with what I gave up for Lent, but that seems to be the easier part for me. What hasn’t gone as well has been the genuine spiritual... Read more

Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest and the author of numerous books worthy of your consideration. Earlier this year he wrote a devotion that struck me as particularly profound. A few weeks later, I was in a meeting with the pastors of the larger churches in the United Church of Christ and someone quoted that devotion. Obviously I wasn’t the only one on whom it made an impact. What he wrote has come up for me again and again, so... Read more

Since long before we started kindergarten, we have been praised and rewarded for what we learn and what we know. The pattern of living for a grade is so deeply engrained in us that people who build electronic games create them to praise us. Fact, data, information, charts, graphs, and detailed descriptions all prove our point, support our opinion, or guide our behavior. We all want to be smart. Now we walk around with phones that can tell us how... Read more

Yesterday’s assigned gospel lesson was from the ninth chapter of John. It is one of several very long readings that are assigned during Lent. Your church might have read the entire thing. Ours did not. It is unfortunate, but reading something that long to people usually reminds them of being read to at bedtime. So they fall asleep. If, like us, your church shortened the lesson or if, like most folks, you drifted off in the middle of the reading,... Read more

If it doesn’t rain Sunday, or God forbid snow, or if the spring day isn’t too pretty, or if some other excuse doesn’t present itself, you might go to church. If your pastor follows the common lectionary then, like us, they will preach on the story about healing the man born blind. Yesterday I talked about how hard it is to get past the second verse where the disciples want to debate who sinned that the man was blind. The... Read more

This Sunday the Gospel lesson shares the story of a man who was born blind. As they pass by him, the disciples of Jesus ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) There is so much wrong in this one verse that preachers can fill their entire sermon without going on. Not the least of the problems is that the instinct of these disciples was not to heal or help the poor... Read more

I’ve been listening lately to an African-American gospel radio station in the mornings and a contemporary Christian station in the afternoon. The music plays in the background while I work, but, every now and then, a song will demand that I pay attention. Sometimes it is the irresistible tune or beat. Other times what catches me are the words or message. I grew up in a conservative church in the South. I came along during the revival of the church... Read more

When I was in Dallas I often got into trouble for calling the church to contest the inequalities in the judicial system and, in particular, how capital punishment is imposed only on the poor. One Sunday I pointed out that Jesus, a peasant rabbi, had been executed by an unholy alliance of religion and the militarized government. I was greeting people after the service, and I saw an older man headed toward me who I knew to be much more... Read more