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It has recently become very easy to jump on the bandwagon of lament, crying, “The world is so divided!” While the lament may be true, getting stuck in lament is not helpful. As a follow-up to my last contribution to this column, “A Different Conversation,” today I’d like to go beyond lamenting. To begin, let’s name a big problem we tend to participate in: dehumanization. We dehumanize one another so often, we don’t even realize we’re doing it. When we so easily use words like “hate” to describe our feelings for someone, we have already made t...
It could have been any day, I do not remember exactly, but the conversation was not new in its content. I was visiting with a person about the value of participating in the life of a church. Various reasons were given for not doing so: lightning might strike, the walls might fall in, too many hypocrites (“I know what they’re like when they’re not at church.”), etc. I quoted Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and legal experts who complained about his eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but s...
1Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you… 4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith e...
“What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.” (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23) Some of us are a bit reluctant to slow down. We know that when we do, we may notice something we are trying to avoid – a difficult conversation with a friend, an upcoming appointment with a doctor. Whatever it is, we usually do not want to face the reality that some things are beyond our control. We have no control over how a friend...
“Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord pointed out a tree to him. He threw it in the water, and the water became sweet.” (Exodus 15:25 CEB) The notion of “surrender” has a myriad of understandings. On one hand we can relinquish an object, even ourselves, over to the care or responsibility of another. On another hand, we can surrender by giving into something – perhaps a behavior, or going along with the crowd. This season before Easter, what those of us in certain liturgical traditions call “Lent,” provides an opportunity to focus on surr...
