Death and resurrection. It’s the impossibility around which every other impossibility of the Christian faith orbits. Baptism declares that God is in the business of bringing dead things back to life, so if you want in on God’s business, you better prepare to follow...
04095 – Mary Magdalene Mattered
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...
03744 – Strongman vs. Scapegoat
Beware systems and identities that need: 1. A Strongmanand2. A Scapegoat There will be no end of violence when these two exist. They legitimate and fuel each other. Jesus demonstrates how demonically futile the Strongman/Scapegoat mechanism is in his death and...
03668 – Easter is…
Easter is about listening to women preach resurrection. Easter is about switching the sword for the cross. Easter is about rejecting the ways of empire and rising up for the oppressed. Easter is about paradise for the humble and power for the lowly. Easter is hope for...
02745 – For God So Loved…
For God so loved the world that God made us for love. For God so loved the world that God incarnated love itself in the person of Jesus.For God so loved the world that God empowered us to love even our enemies, even the worst person on Twitter, even those who seem...
02536 – It Happens to All of Us
It happens to all of us, I concluded that Easter Sunday morning. God simply keeps reaching down into the dirt of humanity and resurrecting us from the graves we dig for ourselves through our violence, our lies, our selfishness, our arrogance, and our addictions. And...
02279 – Tragically Flawed by Our Self-Centeredness
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...
02254 – Christ’s Incarnation Makes Us Human, As God Intended
Christ came into the world to make us truly human. When we look at human beings today in terms of what God has done for humanity in the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, we should respond with awesome wonder and treat everyone with tender dignity —...
02173 – Your Body is Not a Coffin for Pain
You gotta resurrect the deep pain within you and give it a place to live that's not within your body. Let it live in art. Let it live in writing. Let it live in music. Let it be devoured by building brighter connections. Your body is not a coffin for pain to be buried...
02158 – Seeking New Beginnings
Many of us today in the Western world are aware that the old order is not working—politically, socially, environmentally, religiously. Countless numbers of us from the Christian community have already lifted anchor and are sailing out of the harbor of our religious...