Of late, some of my closest companions are animals—several cats and one dog. With a few, I am close in ways I am close to few others. Few—or none—of my friends do I kiss and nuzzle and stroke and tell, “I love you so much; you are so precious to me…” (on and on gag infinitum) with regularity. At least in western culture, effusive affection isn’t the language of relationships, apart from those with young children and between couples en... Read more
This week’s lectionary gospel (Luke 13:10-17) shows, along with other healing stories, how Jesus taught mercy over concerns like being correct, or keeping laws, or being “righteous.” To Jesus, the freedom and relief of the woman he illegally healed on the Sabbath—a woman trapped in suffering for eighteen years—ranked so far above any law that Jesus blasted the leader who reminded him his action was illegal. He says, You show mercy to your donkey on the Sabbath. Why wouldn’t I... Read more
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” Frederick Buechner (“Grace,” in Wishful Thinking) Recently my friend Ali introduced me to this description of prayer: “where the this meets the more-than-this.” Of late, I’ve also heard expressions of fear from different friends. Fear of physical vulnerability in the face of looming medical tests. Fear of losing a partner seriously struggling with illness. Fear of financial insecurity in the face of job loss. Fear of threatening... Read more
No author has impacted my life as has Frederick Buechner. Not only have I read all but two or three of his copious writings (two of his novels are among my ‘top five’: Godric and The Final Beast), but he inspired me to become a writer. Finding and reading him changed my life—the honesty, the remarkable loveliness of his writing filled me with aspiration. It still does. And the wide-open, not fussy, warm-and-hospitable God Buechner portrayed made me want to... Read more
One day last week, two friends wrote out of the blue to express that they were thinking of me. Besides being moved, I was struck by how thinking of someone in this way is a kind of prayer. One friend said “I am holding you in the light, as the Quakers say,” describing a Quaker understanding of prayer. In my view, when someone comes into focus in your heart and mind and you surround them with the warm glow of... Read more
I once heard the late commentator Mark Shields describe democracy as ‘the way we resolve our conflicts without using violence’ (paraphrase). This description is wise. It also renders voting an ethical or moral act. If people of faith are called to be peacemakers, and voting—along with other mechanisms of active democracy—is how we avoid violence with our neighbors, we are called to engage democracy. A roiling conflict in our country is the waging of culture wars in schools, in part... Read more
I’ve had a complicated relationship with prayer, increasingly resisting conceptions of prayer that put control in our hands. Recently I preached on a lectionary passage about prayer (Luke 11:1-13) that could be construed this way. It includes an interesting parable about a man who needs bread, so he pounds on the door of his friend until his friend finally gets up and provides it. The story obviously commends persistence. Then the writer of Luke combines the parable with Jesus’ teaching... Read more
Let’s start with what I can say with whole heart. The words appear in the prayer we say, in my tradition, post-communion: Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ. These words, I adore—wholeheartedly. They resonate in me with longing to give myself in love for this world—not “this world” in the abstract, but in love for my partner, the animals... Read more
{See previous column “Reluctant Spokesperson {Part 1}” for this column’s set-up.} Rarely do we stop to scrutinize how our actions have been shaped by the traditions we unconsciously participate in. Rarely do we ask why we flock en masse to see the latest Marvel action movie, why we so energetically follow sports seasons and favorite teams, or why we buy so many Christmas presents for our kids. In each case, we operate as adherents to the rules of dominant traditions—we... Read more
Sometimes I hear measures of a song so searingly truthful or heartrendingly beautiful they seem like prayer. Or I see a swallow swooping across a dawn-lit sky and the moment of perfection professes to me more than any sacred text. Other times, I read a passage in a book—maybe by George Eliot or Toni Morrison or Henry David Thoreau—that seems as laden with insight as any scripture, and I see the author must surely tune in to God as they... Read more
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