Terror No More: Psalm 9/10 and a terrible week in Canada God’s judgement cuts through the deceit and names evil violence for what it is, whether on Parliament Hill in the hands of a man bent on murder, or on Parliament Hill in legislation that excludes the refugee, despoils the earth, and favours the rich.
Clash of Empires This is a story about empires colliding – the Roman Empire colliding with the upstart anti-empire that Jesus referred to ironically as “the Kingdom of God.”
Miscarriage There is no poetry in miscarriage, no poetry in death. Its shock, surprise and torment cannot be made beautiful. It is ache, absence and loss beyond words.
Thanksgiving and Lament: Psalm 42-43 Where is your God? Where is that God who was so close in your worship leader days? Where is that God who was on your lips in praise?
Psalm 33 and an Ontology of Love The earth is full of the steadfast love of God. Dripping, saturated, soaked, running over in love. Even against the evidence.
Leonard Cohen, Psalmist Has Leonard strained to hear that voice whispering through all of creation? Has he had an ear for that voice without words? Might he have the gift of translating such creational glossalia?
From Trust to Lament to Trust Again We must be a community in which such songs of lament, such abrasive crying out to God, such pain at the depths of our souls, can have free voice. You see, without such lament, without such wrestling with God, individually and communally, we can never sing praise with integrity.
Psalm 137, Exile and Rocket Launchers Songs of home, songs of hope, songs that keep a faith alive, are defiled and profaned when they become the trivial entertainment of voyeuristic oppressors.
Exile, song and rage “By the rivers of Babylon – there we sat down and there we wept.” There, by those Babylonian rivers, we hung up our guitars, put away the drums, packed up the keyboard, and refused to sing. Except for this one blues tune.
James, ‘the Rich,’ and the Complexity Argument (A meditation at on James 4.13-5.20 presented at Wine Before Beer on August 26, 2014.)
Dogged Faith Great is the faith of the woman who dares to talk back; the one who dares to question; the one who dares lean in.
You talkin’ to me? James and the Church Some thirty five years ago I published my first article. It came out in a Berkeley, California based magazine of radical discipleship, appropriately named Radix.
Misogyny, Feminism, Children and the Church When I was in my mid-twenties I applied for an office job at my church. During my interview, the committee asked if I wouldn't be having children soon:
A Community of the Word (A meditation on James 3.1-18 at Wine Before Beer on July 22, 2014) We are a community of the word.