Jesus couldn’t have been clearer. Faith is love, inclusion, servanthood, submission. People will always turn against the vulnerable. But they don’t get to call their behavior “Christian.” Love means feeding.
02779 – Love Means Feeding
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02698 – God the Mother Hen
God the Mother Hen gathers all of her downy feathered, vulnerable little ones under God’s protective wings so that we know where we belong, because it is there that we find warmth and shelter.
01935 – The Search for Belonging
When productivity is our main way of overcoming self-doubt, we are extremely vulnerable to rejection and criticism and prone to inner anxiety and depression. Productivity can never give the deep sense of belonging we crave. The more we produce, the more we realize...
01874 – The Gospel without Social Justice?
Social justice is not the totality of the Gospel...but the Gospel without a commitment to neighbor, the vulnerable, justice, and the common good (aka social justice) is not a faithful Gospel. The Gospel not only saves but also pursues the Kingdom of God on earth as it...
01484 – Growing into Love=Becoming More Vulnerable
The more you grow into love, into the message of Jesus--to say it in such traditional, defenseless terms--the more vulnerable you make yourself. You simply become more open to attack when you have become conspicuous or when "that of God" lights up in you. When you...
01270 – Did God Suffer?
Years earlier I had read some writings of Jurgen Moltmann, a German theologian who argued that God "experiences" our sufferings and grieves with us. Our soul is so connected with God, he said, that it's impossible for the Divine Being not to share our aguish. Now...
01168 – What is the Purpose of a Choir?
What is the purpose of a choir? It's not to perform difficult music before a silent and intimidated (or irritated) congregation. It's not there to impress the faithful. It's there to encourage the faithful to find their voices to praise God in his holiness. It is...
01035 – Bring Heaven to Earth
The Bible isn’t a book about how to get into heaven; it’s a library of poems and letters and stories about bringing heaven to earth now, about this world becoming more and more the place it should be. There is very, very little in the Bible about what happens when you...
00557 – Holy Spirit: A Gift, Not a Possession
The empowerment of the Spirit is not earned; it is freely given. And so with the early church at Pentecost. It was not their courage or clarity that evoked the blessing of the Spirit, for they were vulnerable and confused. The Spirit is a gift, not a possession. The...
00076 – A Community Called Beloved
I am convinced that a community-called-beloved is possible. This is an admittedly fragile possibility, but it is not a utopian dream. I believe that people of good will harbor a persistent hope that our planet can be a place of belonging for all its inhabitants. To...