Twenty years ago I was on a late-night radio program in Phoenix with a rabbi and a Christian host who insisted the Bible was simple — just open it and read. The rabbi stiffened. So did I. What followed was one of the most clarifying conversations I’ve had about faith and reason. This Sunday I’m preaching on the Road to Emmaus at St. Martin’s in Providence — a story about two people who walk beside […]
Peace that is imposed by force is not the true peace that begins with Easter.
God will not abandon us to the darkness and to despair. Easter is our destiny.
The Passion describes something commonplace and unique in history. It’s something that has changed the course of history. It’s still changing us. It exposes a truth we would kill rather than recognize. And that truth saved us from ourselves and still does.
Preconceived notions and rigid interpretations can blind people to God’s work. Be open to seeing God in unexpected forms, such as mud and mess, and be surprised by God’s creative action
Over the next few weeks, including this weekend, my calendar is such that, between travel and other commitments, I’m not going to be able to keep my weekly sermon posting schedule. I’m sorry about that. And extra sorry that this weekend I don’t have a sermon from three years ago to share instead. But I see that one of my favorite preachers, Andrew Gerns, has already posted his sermon for this weekend. Here’s a taste: […]
Nicodemus came with genuine questions about what God was doing, even when the answers were confusing and incomplete. That orientation — toward discernment rather than recruitment — is what distinguishes faith from politics, even when they are standing in the same room.
The wounds from trauma, from broken institutions, from years wandering in cultural and spiritual wilderness - those are brought to the refiner’s fire not to be forgotten but to be transformed.
The Transfiguration reminds us: the voices worth listening to are often the ones being dismissed. Throughout Scripture, God's people repeatedly misunderstand what God is doing. And in our own time? We see this same pattern. We divide over worship styles, over politics, over who's in and who's out, while the prophetic call to care for the vulnerable, to seek justice, to practice mercy gets drowned out by certainty and self-righteousness.
Jesus is saying something challenging: the community he's building doesn't operate on the logic of retaliation. It breaks cycles instead of perpetuating them.
