There’s a great saying attributed to Dorothy Day, the great 20th century friend of the poor, anti-war and labor activist, and founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Dorothy is remembered as saying: “Everyone wants a revolution, but nobody wants to do the dishes.” After I graduated highschool I was a gangly seventeen year old, bored […]
Romans
Learning to Dance
The first and only time I’ve taken dance lessons was a month into marriage with Alli. We signed up for a partner ballroom dance class because we thought it would be fun and our friends were teaching the class. Each week we learned a new style – waltz and swing and foxtrot. And it turned […]
Gifts of Transformation
We all want something to change. We’re all longing for something to be transformed. Maybe you want to change. Maybe you wish you’d finally reach that DuoLingo streak you keep missing by a few days. Maybe you’ll be a starter on the competitive team this year or stick to your daily yoga plan. Perhaps a […]
Praying
Psalm 13 (VT #728), Psalm 46:10 (VT #730), Romans 8:26 (VT #729), Philippians 4:4-7 (VT #726) As you probably noticed, all of our Bible passages for today are taken from one page of our hymnal, all on the theme of prayer. I especially like the way they linked the last three scripture passages together, with […]
Deny yourself
“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’” (Matthew 16:24). Self-denial. That’s what we do, as Christians. That’s who we are. We deny ourselves the things of this world—and we call it discipleship, discipline. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it costly […]
Keys, keys, keys
“I got them keys, keys, keys / I got them keys, keys, keys / I got them keys, keys, keys.” That’s DJ Khaled. He’s a rapper, kinda. And when I hear Jesus in our passage tell us that he will give us the keys to the kingdom, I hear DJ Khaled’s beat, his keys, keys, […]
Advent at night
Advent 1 Sometimes, in the morning, when I’m waking up, I find myself in a dream world where everything is as it should be, a world without pain and sorrow, a world full of joy and peace: swords turned into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks. And even though I know I’m waking up, I want […]
Stand in Grace
Trinity Sunday – May 29, 2016 I’m preaching on the Romans text today, which feels a little weird, given the joyous embodiment of the gospel in the sermon the children preached together last week. Now here I am, setting out to talk about a passage on justification. Such a heavy word. Still, I hope that […]
Pentecost: Oscar Romero
Day of Pentecost On Pentecost we pay attention to the mystery of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God poured out from heaven: God’s spirit alive in us, alive in our world. What are the signs of the Holy Spirit, the signs that the Spirit of God is at work? I thought I’d see if […]