Now is the time to pray the kinds of difficult prayers that might re-establish a common moral narrative around caring for the poor, making healthcare accessible, pursuing peace rather than war and building a just and inclusive economy.
Discipleship in the midst of environmental extraction and exploitation
The lack of roots in the places we inhabit, and the lack of care for the places that nourish and sustain our lives, are issues of discipleship. The systemic results of environmental distress and collapse come to bear on the bodies of poor people and people of color in the United States. This is called environmental racism, and it, too, is an issue of discipleship.
Savoring the moment when the sacredness of the present is made plain
It is only in suspension that the sacredness of the present is made plain. What lies ahead cannot be seen, but each day has enough trouble of its own. For now, there is this moment. This breath. This being here.
In narrating our lives, we know how they end. It’s the middle chapters that are missing.
Our final chapters have been written. On that great gettin’ up morning, we will see Jesus, and we will be like him, having been freed from death. We know how the story ends, but we do not know how we get there. The middle chapters are missing.
A gospel torn in two by a white Jesus
Among the unavoidable claims of the gospel is that those following in the way of Jesus will be wounded. The Way leads to abundance, but it is not painless. A false gospel — or a half-gospel — wounds, but not in a way that brings about healing. White Jesus wounds the body and soul of everyone he encounters, but lacks either the power or the gentle touch to bind up our wounds.
For whites observing Black History Month, remember what seat you’re sitting in
White navel-gazing is not the proper orientation toward Black History Month. We’ve got to do the needed self-examination, but we are not the center of the narrative. Using the work of blacks to put ourselves back at the center of the story is not the right strategy. But while reading all that black history, it does help to know what seat we are sitting in.
Lessons learned at a kitchen sink
Slow, quiet growth will make followers of Jesus ready to act quickly in defense of the poor and vulnerable.
On ‘Hope’ Sunday, enough with the future tense. I’m ready for the present tense.
The world is groaning for some prophet to speak a few living and active verbs — three-dimensional verbs, verbs that make some difference in the order of things, verbs that sing like Mary sings, songs that bind up the broken-hearted and set the captives free.
Psalm 109: A reading after Charlottesville
With our mouths we will give you great thanks, God, for you stand at the right hand of the oppressed, and through your oppressed body comes our liberation.