Here's my sermon from Sunday (September 30), which I called "Words Mean What They Mean...Until They Don't: Redefining Liturgy, part 1." It is inspired by Brian McLaren's Why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammad Cross the Road? I think it is a terrific book. For years now I've found McLaren to be an author …
Watch “The Line” and #TalkPoverty
As I wrote a couple weeks ago, tonight you can watch the world premiere of (what promises to be) a terrific, important and compelling movie: The Line. I threw in that parenthetical qualifier because, of course, I haven't actually seen the film. Hence the "world premiere" part. 🙂 But I absolutely expect The Line to …
Celebrating Sabbath
Today's reading from Galatians chapter 5, The Voice version: For the whole law comes down to this one instruction: "Love your neighbor as yourself," - so why all this vicious gnawing on each other? If you are not careful, you will find you've eaten each other alive! Here's my instruction: walk in the Spirit, and …
Trafficking jam
It has been a very busy day in the anti-human trafficking world! Most notably, President Obama used his time at the Clinton Global Initiative to deliver remarks about human trafficking, including new initiatives to engage the fight. As the President rightly stated, this issue is important to all of us: It ought to concern every …
Celebrating Sabbath
The International Day of Peace (aka World Peace Day) was this week. Seems to me that everyday is a good - and important - day to pray for peace. Of course, as the song says, if there is to be peace on earth, it must begin with me. My go-to prayer is a simple breath …
Toeing “The Line”
I've written rather extensively about my involvement with and support for Bread for the World. I've been less vocal about my involvement with and support for Sojourners. But both organizations help me reflect upon a Christian commitment to social justice. Both organizations help me act on that commitment. So you can imagine my interest when …
Celebrating Sabbath
Beautiful and challenging words from Sister Joan Chittister, via Dr. Richard Beck: Here's a great quote from a recent interview she gave to the Jackson Free Press. The interviewer's question: "So, as a woman of faith, as a monastic, how do you see your role and the role of other people of faith in the …
Who will we be?
If yesterday was (rightly) a day for remembering, it seems to me that today is one for introspection. As a country, who do we want to be? How big is the gap between who we are and who we long to be? How do we close that gap? Thanks to Jake Bouma, yesterday I saw …
Remembering
The day before, Joann and I played golf together for the first time. We'd been talking about playing together, flirting with each other for months. But it wasn't a date. It was a good day and many more with her would come. But not for a little while. The next morning, that day, I got …
Why my children will never play football
This opinion piece by Ken Reed from a recent Chicago Tribune is brilliant, scary as all get out, and right on every point. To wit: There aren’t enough safety measures we can implement to overcome the fact that the brain isn’t built to withstand the repetitive brain trauma inherent in a game built around violent …
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 