I've learned, over many years, that church isn't about order or quiet or even ritual so much as it is about showing up. For yourself, for God, and for the people around you who need to feel--just as you do--that the blessings and burdens of being a human are not...
The religions start from mysticism...But, I compare this to a volcano that gushes forth ...and then ...the magma flows down the sides of the mountain and cools off. And when it reaches the bottom, it's just rocks. You'd never guess that there was fire in it. So after...
I was wrong and embarrassingly ignorant to assume--no, believe!--liturgical churches of any kind were dry & boring with meaningless rituals practiced by detached people and that liturgical churches (across the board!) did not value the Scriptures OR the gospel the...
All children need a laptop. Not a computer, but a human laptop. Moms, Dads, Grannies and Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles--someone to hold them, read to them, teach them. Loved ones who will embrace them and pass on the experience, rituals, and knowledge of a hundred previous...
The word “scapegoating” originated from an ingenious ritual described in Leviticus 16. According to Jewish law, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest laid hands on an “escaping” goat, placing all the sins of the Jewish people from the previous year onto the animal....
God's Word teaches a very hard, disturbing truth. Those who neglect the poor and the oppressed are really not God's people at all--no matter how frequently they practice their religious rituals or how orthodox are their creeds and confessions.
I owe everything to the gift of Pentecost. For fifty days the facts of the Gospel were complete, but no conversions were recorded. Pentecost registered three thousand souls. It is by fire that a holy passion is kindled in the soul whereby we live the life of God. The...
We keep doing these things over and over again on Sunday morning because we know that if we didn’t we might lose our love. In fact, those times when we don’t feel like it, when we really feel no deep attachment or desire to worship the Beloved, are the times we ought...
Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father. Its central reality is found “in spirit and truth.” It is kindled within us only when the Spirit of God touches our human spirit. Forms and rituals do not produce worship, nor does the...
Silence is therefore important even in the life of faith and in our deepest encounter with God. We cannot always be talking, praying in words, cajoling, reasoning, or keeping up a kind of devout background music. Much of our well-meant interior religious dialogue is,...