It is, I think, easy to underestimate the attracting power of unconditional love. But in the person of Jesus it was captivating to many people who lived when he lived, and has become the foundation for millions since… faithfulness in following Jesus’ call to...
In Matthew 25, Jesus describes true converts as being marked by a peculiar empathy toward the poor, marginalized, and incarcerated. But he describes false converts as being outwardly religious but marked by a peculiar callousness toward the poor, marginalized, and...
The good news is that there are no gatekeepers to Jesus. People try to be. Pastors, theologians, churches, and others police theology, enforce legalism, and criticize people's faith. But God loves everyone even when Christians don't.
The God imaged by Jesus exerts no dominating supremacy. In Christ, we see an image of a God who is not armed with lightning bolts but with basin and towel, who spewed not threats but good news for all, who rode not a warhorse but a donkey, weeping in compassion for...
You cannot be a Christian without living like a Christian. You cannot be a Christian without practicing the Beatitudes. You cannot be a Christian without doing what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25. It's hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or...
Being a Christian is not essentially about joining a church or being a nice person, but about following in the footsteps of Jesus, taking his teachings seriously, letting his Spirit take the lead in our lives, and in so doing helping to change the world from our...
The beauty of Christian spirituality is that the God we are in relationship with is for us in Christ. Like the father in the prodigal son story, God is waiting with his eyes looking for us in the distance. He is waiting to embrace us. This image might take some...
Christians should regularly ask themselves, "Is my faith more a reflection of my political, cultural, and socio-economic values and actions, or a reflection of the values and actions of Christ?"
The identifying characteristic which sets apart Jesus' genuine followers from the rest of the world is not wisdom, nor right theology, nor moral righteousness, nor social power; it is extraordinary love.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Human One. Talk about an upside-down universe! I’m not happy when people hate me—and some people do hate me. Jesus is saying that we have to...