The Hebrew lesson on Sunday was that great passage from Isaiah that predicts that the “stump of Jesse” (King David’s father) would spout again. Isaiah wrote in a day when the nation had fallen and no monarch ruled from Jesse or David’s lineage, though they believed God had promised that someone always would. From this apparently dead stump, Isaiah says that hope will spring forth again. That is the message of this season: in the darkest time, a new light... Read more

Yesterday, in churches around the world, the faithful remembered Nelson Mandela. For our modern lesson at Virginia-Highland Church, we used Maya Angelou’s beautiful tribute, “His Day is Done,” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqQzjit7b1w) and I saw the young people lean forward and many of the adults wipe away tears and swallow hard. That is as it should be. There have been an endless stream of tributes, but I have been fascinated as I have remembered those who did not consider him a hero during... Read more

There is a young man in my church who spent most of his life growing up in Africa. On Sunday, I asked him how his first Thanksgiving in America was. He was polite, as always, but otherwise noncommittal. I asked him if he ate lots of pie, but his mother explained that he really didn’t care much for sweets. Then she added that at the airport, on the way to see their extended family, he had American fast food for... Read more

Expect the unexpected. Faithful living means that your expanded awareness of God includes the ability to trust that balance and harmony will soon emerge. Read more

Yesterday was World AIDS Day. In honor of that, I thought I’d share what I wrote in my book Queeries to a young man named Tim who asked if HIV/AIDS was a punishment sent from God: Let me begin by assuring you that God did not give you HIV. What kind of God would go around infecting people with a virus? Millions of infants and children in Africa are infected, and they don’t have medical care. Is God punishing them?... Read more

I wonder if it is merely a coincidence that there are almost exactly the same number of homeless in America as there are churches. One day, a member of a church’s finance committee was out visiting members to ask them to make a pledge. One man said he wasn’t giving anything because religion had become such an expensive proposition. The visitor from the church got a faraway look in his eyes and said, “You know you might be right, but... Read more

My sermon on Sunday focused on the passage in Jeremiah in which he addressed the exiles in Babylon. He gives the odd advice that they should “seek the welfare of the city into which you have been exiled for in its welfare you shall find your own welfare.” The word “welfare” is an inadequate translation of the Jewish word “shalom,” which means peace, wholeness, and abundance of life. Jeremiah is calling them to seek those things for the place where... Read more

What does it mean to determine a better existence? When we know better we can do better, but how is better defined? Read more

Okay, I’m really angry about the news coverage about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Yes, the law is complex, convoluted, and complicated. So why isn’t anyone observing that the reason for this is that our bought-and-sold politicians were too cowardly to do the right thing, which is single-payer, universal coverage? Health care is a human right. Why isn’t the media asking what alternatives the critics propose? Are they suggesting that we simply should leave people out of health care, drop... Read more

Lately I’ve been learning a lot about something I thought I already knew a lot about. It has been fascinating, challenging, and exhilarating. It also has been a humbling reminder of how hard it really is to teach an old dog new tricks. Furthering that is the recognition that success or acclaim makes learning and growing all the harder. Sometimes it is easier to assume that you know and to resist all challenges to consider that you might not know... Read more