Tag: god
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Mommy and Dad (as you are in my phone) I Hope I get this Right
I’m so naïve. It didn’t take long. I wept for the first time today, and it wasn’t because I visited a church during an emotional service where they were saying goodbye to some people they really love, to send them to Burundi perhaps indefinitely. I didn’t weep because I was confronted with my own darkness,…
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What do I do with these blank pages?
In 2010 I wrote to be funny, more specifically I wrote comedic fiction for a class to counterbalance writing my thesis on Islamic extremism in Southern Russia and what exactly that looked like. But what I was most proud of is a story called the Cheesebringer, which was a dumb coming of age story about…
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A Time Before Certainty
Matthew 13:1-32 I worked on an organic farm for 4 seasons. It’s interesting how many factors go into having a fruitful crop: the seed, the soil, the sun, the water, the bugs. Some of these can be controlled. We can add water, we can spray pesticides (technically not in organic farming). Much of farming maintains…
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The Gospel of Love: Fill the World with Stories
John 21: 15-25 – Word Feed If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. The Gospel of John ends with the author telling us that Jesus did too many good things to contain in writing. Jesus, likewise,…
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The Catching Gospel: Assured to Shore
John 21:1-14 – The Dive-in Depths It never ceases to surprise me how quick I am to stumble, how at such arbitrary times our struggle with sin seems to affect us and leaves us without excuse. I am prone to wavering in my affection and in those moments I feel as if I forget myself.…
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The Appearing Gospel: Look Who Showed Up
John 20: 1-23 – Stay in Awe When was the last time you stood in awe or wonder of something? When was the last time something left you dazed and confused? In the Gospel of John chapter 20, individuals are still living in the shock and shadow of the death of Jesus. Early, on the…
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The Finishing Gospel: Death of the Saves Man
John 19:16-42 – Are We Living or Dying? Yesterday, I taught my second to last class on the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). We discussed the crucifixion and the resurrection. What is interesting to me about John’s gospel is the things he notes about Jesus during the crucifixion. Jesus is deeply concerned for his mother.…
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The Gospel of Trial: God’s Verdict
John 18:28 – 19:16 – What Do You Stand for? Lately, I have been practicing withholding judgment against the inaction of individual’s. I’ve begun this practice because I’m recognizing that the inaction of others most often results from ignorance or lack of urgency, not from maliciousness or hatred. I don’t want to put someone on…
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The Cutting Gospel: Separating the Should and Should Not
John 18:1-27- Imagine the Divine Impulse Have you ever been disappointed in yourself after acting on impulse? Considering how frequently in the Gospels Peter acts on impulse, I imagine he was disappointed in himself often. But I am convinced that our impulsive action in ignorance does not disappoint God as much as it disappoints us.…
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The Gospel of Grow: Tangled Up in You
John 15: I Don’t Know if This Ends The first sermon I preached during my first job in ministry was from John 15. 8 months later, the last sermon I preached during my first job in ministry was from John 15. That was 7 years ago. And since then, I’ve learned a lot about why…
The Reconstructed 