All four gospels witness to Mary Magdalene as the premier witness to the resurrection - alone or in a group, but in all cases named by name. . . All four gospels insist that when the other disciples are fleeing, Mary Magdalene stands firm. She does not run, she does...
Eastertide and an Expanding Christ If Silent Saturday belongs to those grieving the death of the only Jesus they have ever known, Eastertide (the fifty days following Easter) belongs to those who are open to experiencing Jesus differently than they ever have....
New life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark. from Learning to Walk in the Dark
The cross is not where God inflicts violence on Jesus in order to vent his wrath; the cross is where God in Christ endures human inflicted violence and forgives it all. The cross is not where Jesus saves us from God, but where Jesus reveals God as Savior.
This year, I am finding myself really needing Holy Saturday. I need this space where the shadows of death have not yet given way to new life and resurrection.I need a day where we sit together in those shadows and watch the disciples be unsure of what is coming next....
Easter weekend discussions tend to skip Saturday. Friday and Sunday get the press. The crucifixion and resurrection command our thoughts. But don’t ignore Saturday. You have them, too. Silent Saturdays. The day between the struggle and the solution; the question and...
We thought, if there is to be business between us and God, we must somehow get up to God. Then God came down, down to the level of the cross.
Christianity is the only world religion that confesses a God who suffers. It is not that popular an idea, even among Christians. We prefer a God who prevents suffering, only that is not the God we have got. What the Cross teaches us is that God's power is not the...
The scriptural telling begins with how tragically flawed we are by our self-centeredness – Adam blaming Eve, Cain bashing Abel – and how slow we are to realize it – Samson with Delilah, David with Bathsheba.... But one day a man named Jesus appeared out of nowhere who...
We are, on this night, at the pivot point of the Jesus story. And it turns out that on this night we are at the pivot point of the story of the world. Everything depends on the outcome of the trial of Jesus before Pilate. It is a trial we get to remember tonight. It...