Hanging on For Dear Life We find Jesus on the side of the road, I can only imagine stunned, at the sight of the wide-eyed rich man hanging on to the tree for dear life
Promise, Reality and Crying Out There is something about groaning and crying out that is at the very heart of covenantal life. Somehow, the Spirit is deeply active in such groaning...
Galatians: A Costly Welcome Saint Paul demands to know: Is Christ's welcome for everyone, or not? Who is welcome to join the movement? And at what cost?"
Rape, Healing, and the Author of Our Stories Our brains generally try to explain exceptions through a model of deviance, thus the battered or raped woman is soon morphed from a victim to a (willing) deviant participant. If violence is ‘not supposed to happen’ or is ‘not supposed to happen to me,’ then it’s hard to narrate the violence credibly.
Nazareth to Ottawa: Election Eve Reflections Good news to the poor. Release to captives. Recovery of sight to the blind.
Truth, Elections and the Spirit [A meditation on John 15.26-16.15 for Wine Before Beer, August 25, 2015] In one of his most memorable quotes, philosopher Richard Rorty once said, “Truth is what your contemporaries let you get away with.”
How Reconciliation Begins As Jesus invites us into his community of reconciliation, he offers a wide welcome to one and all, calling us to offer the same welcome that we received.
There’s More Healing to Be Done Jesus stops, disrupting the flow of blood from the one whose hemorrhages had not ceased to flow for 12 long years. Twelve years of suffering healed in an instant. And yet, there’s more healing to be done.
Dry Bones, the Spirit and Resurrection There can be no resurrection without a new creation. There can be no new creation without bodies. And there can be no bodies without soil.
Bikes, Jesus and the Legal System It was a week and a half ago that I was (nearly) bike-jacked. And every time I talk about this, someone inevitably asks: "Is that a thing?"
The Spirit, ‘Spontaneity’ and Justice I guess I'm just tired of the Holy Spirit being used as a psycho-spiritual drug dealer justifying spiritual narcissism.
Advent, Psalm 145 and a “Fantastic” Vision “There is a time and place in the ceaseless human endeavor to change the world, when alternative visions, no matter how fantastic, provide the grist for shaping powerful political forces for change.
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.
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.