As people of faith, we must always look for ways to have the hard conversations that will bridge people of differing opinions. But those conversations cannot move forward without an honest starting place. Say what you think and believe, and say it clearly. Read more
At this moment along our journey, friends, we cannot be agents of radical love without working to dismantle racism and white supremacy in our country. Read more
“When we’re told we’ll never understand” Someone says a drug-related incident, someone says he was quiet, he mostly kept to himself, someone says mental illness, someone says a hateful and deranged mind, someone says he was a loner, he wasn’t bullied, someone says his sister was getting married in four days, a newsman says an attack on faith, a relative says his mother never raised him to be like this, a friend says he had that kind of Southern pride,... Read more
The Hardest Question Mark 4:35-41 Anybody who has spent any amount of time around an inquisitive five year old will know that kids ask the funniest questions to try to figure out the world. Some great ones that I remember from life with my own five year olds are questions like: Why am I right handed? How many stars are in the sky? Why do lions roar? Where does outer space begin? How do birds fly? Who invented the alphabet?... Read more
Transformed by the Spirit 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 Today we continue in the season after Pentecost, the weeks following the birthday of the church, thinking about the work of God’s Spirit, that lively force that visited the first disciples and has visited us, inviting us out of the careful categories and safe boundaries that we have put around our belief and around our practice as the community of Christ, into the risky and unpredictable adventure of faith, of being the church together.... Read more
It’s the first anniversary of my work as pastor at my church. To mark the occasion, I think it’s only appropriate to write a bit about — change. I think it would be a fairly objective statement to say we’ve been going through a little bit of change at my church this year. Come to think of it, “a little bit” might be somewhat of an understatement. The entire year has been a whirlwind of building relationships, learning to know... Read more
Adopted by the Spirit Romans 8:12-17 I was thinking on the subway the other day . . . you could just disappear in this city. So many people, everything is so anonymous. It’s true, we live in a world where the population is over six billion people and here we are, spinning around in space, as tiny from above as cars viewed from the window of an airplane. You and I, ultimately, we are dispensable—easily replaced by another human being... Read more
Visited by the Spirit Acts 2:1-21 I have always had a high regard for someone who can tell a really great story. You know, like a novelist who can use the printed word in a masterful way to create a piece that, when you read it, makes you think hard and deep about essential issues of life. Or, a speaker who mesmerizes the crowd and transports you to another place by almost taking you by the hand and leading you... Read more
Yesterday when I pronounced the benediction at the end of worship, I told the congregation to gather all the courage they could muster, turn from the work of worship, and go out to change the world. Honestly, I didn’t think much about how I said it; I try to say something very similar every week because it’s what I believe: being the church should transform us so that we can be agents of transformation in the world. But at the... Read more
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