We live in a time of division and conflict. It is perfect timing then, that our topic this week comes from Galatians 3 and says, “In Christ, there is neither male nor female, slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile … all are one.” Usually when this topic comes up people want to focus on how Christ’s love “bridges” the divides between us. I want to take it a step further! I want to look at how: A) we are...
Read MoreAn interesting discussion from Facebook this week continues so I thought I would post it here as well. I commented Sunday morning, Some church songs are easier to make gender neutral than others. Some of these songs lean so heavily on the masculine pronoun that they are nearly unusable As someone who is very intentional about mixing up the English pronouns used for God [link], this is an important issue for me. It sparked a nice...
Read MoreHow do you experience the divine presence in an average day? This topic has become one of my favorite things to chat about. I have found two powerful trends that seem to be developing. First: Depending on your phase of life, there are certain ‘givens‘ that seem to be assumed and everything else becomes a ‘variable‘. In the formula of life, the question seems to hinge on either how to manipulate (change) the...
Read MoreA Year with C.S. Lewis was my go-to devotional for about a 5 year window. I just loved his witty takes, his everyday language, and his optimistic outlook. Once I decided to go to seminary and started reading heady theology, Lewis took a back seat. I tried to pick it up again a couple of years ago but it seemed too folksy and some of his logic seemed questionable. Lately I have been doing an experiment: taking material that I used to...
Read MoreA week in the woods is good for my soul. I look forward to my annual May camping trip and this year did not disappoint. This year had an extra interesting wrinkle. The Sunday before I left on the trip, I gave a short homily about email entitled, “too much of a good thing”. (It was the topic in our book series Sacred Everyday based Liturgy of the Ordinary). I also did something for the first time ever: I set an...
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You may be aware that sometimes people are unhappy or don’t like everything going on at church. A popular way of talking about conflict styles is to break them up into 3 categories: Flight Fright Fight I’m always surprised at the fairly even distribution of these 3 responses in any group. It makes sense why conflict is so difficult – because we respond to it in so many different ways. It is important that we handle...
Read MoreLast week our Sunday conversation centered around two questions: What is your favorite ‘special’ meal for big occasions? What is your most common meal in a month? I loved the enthusiasm of the answers and the passion around food. It plays such an important role in our life. I then asked if anyone’s favorite meal was ‘leftovers’. It was not. Leftovers are one of those things that get taken for granted....
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I don’t like losing my keys. Not because of the inconvenience, or being late, or turning over every leaf and cushion to find them. I don’t like losing my keys because of what it exposes in me. Normally I am a fairly competent, thoughtful, productive, spiritual, kind, and generally easy-going person. When I lose my keys, those attributes are in a danger of being exposed as a façade. I am afraid that all of those good things...
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Many of us have been sold a bad brand of Christianity. It has something faulty at its core and produces something very harmful in the end. The core problem is that your ‘spirit’ is the really important thing. Your mind is the next most important thing. In distant third is your body. At best, it is inconsequential to your spiritual journey. At worst, your body is harmful or dangerous and must be guarded against. So much of modern...
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Our topic this week in Sunday School might best be called “second faith” … The question is something like ‘what does faith look like after you outgrow your younger faith?‘ A lot of people are struggling right now with how to be a person of faith when they no longer believe what they used to. We are going to be engaging the ideas of a thinker named Paul Ricoeur who talks about ‘passing through...
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