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Affirming our baptism
On this Pentecost Day in the congregation I serve, a young man formally and for the first time publicly affirmed the vows of Christian faith that were made for him at his baptism. It was also a day when all of those gathered affirmed their faith in the words of one of the historic confessions Continue reading
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Interrupted by grace
If you want to make the most of your life and fulfill your life’s highest purpose, and if you want the greatest success in your job or career path, you need to stay focused on your dream or goal and resist distractions and interruptions as much as possible. By setting aside distractions and defending against Continue reading
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Remembering Thomas
Doubt is not the enemy of faith, and it’s not the opposite of faith; doubt can be the dark, rich ground where true faith is born. The story of Thomas and the other disciples on those first two Sundays after the resurrection is more than a story about a group of disciples huddled in fear Continue reading
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Plotting resurrection
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5). On the first day of the week some women came to the cemetery to find the body of Jesus. They did what any of us would have done. They came looking for him where they had Continue reading
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The way to life
We don’t observe the season of Lent to seek redemption from our broken nature; that’s already been accomplished. And we don’t observe Lent to practice some stricter rules for Christian life; authentic Christianity is not about following any rules. We observe Lent because we want the experience of being fully alive and fully human.1 We Continue reading
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The way of love
Sometimes we make love too complicated. We make too much of it, our images so high, our ideals so perfect they’re out of reach. Maybe that’s why we’re not very good at marriages, nearly half of them ending in divorce or separation. But I’m not talking about that kind of love, the Hallmark movie kind. Continue reading
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The difficult grace of hating evil
Hating what is evil and holding fast to what is good (Rom. 12:9b) seems obvious and sensible advice until I try putting it into practice. Then it gets complicated; it starts causing problems not easy to solve; it unsettles the way I’ve been taught to think. Take, for example, this bit of wisdom from a Continue reading
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When night ends and day begins
There’s a game that might make your Lent a little more interesting; it does mine. It’s called “Purgatory,” named for the waiting room where, some Christians believe, your sins are purged and your soul is purified before entering heaven. The way poet W.H. Auden invented the game, writers with contradictory views of life would be Continue reading
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The Sauntering Pilgrim 