By Jayne Davis “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”— Hebrews 12:1b Running a 5K on the first weekend in January is not ideal, even in the South. It can be a bit brisk, to…
Gaining theological heft
By Molly T. Marshall This time of year is a “come to Jesus” season for many of us as we assess our need for better health, which usually includes weight loss for the more sedentary among us. We weigh hopes…
Next trip to the fridge, think on this
By Doyle Sager It mattered to God that the Hebrew people, wandering in the wilderness, were famished. He gave them manna. It mattered to Jesus that 5,000 people were hungry, and so he fed them with five loaves and two…
Abraham was wrong
By Kyle Henderson I remember reading the words, “God told me to do it.” The young mother was explaining her decision to kill her children. Then she mentioned something about Abraham. I felt a little sick. I was a little…
The dark intersection of technology and sexuality
By John Chandler This fall, the Pew Research Center projected that we will see robotic prostitutes by 2025. In the words of University of Tennessee law professor and author Glenn Harlan Reynolds, “Terminator robots won’t stalk the earth massacring humans;…
The race problem: when you’re tired of eating elephant
By Starlette McNeill Someone asked the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” Someone else answered, “One bite at a time.” I don’t know who eats elephant or thinks that they can eat it all. I never have and don’t…
Epiphanic moments
By Bill Leonard “When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were 2 years old and under, according to the…
On saying goodbye and saying hello
By Amy Butler Just the other day I was remembering 11 years of Christmas Eve services at my former congregation. I recall the first year I was there, trying desperately to come up with a unique idea for a service…
A ‘Matthew’ kind of year
By Scott Dickison Yesterday was a lesser-known holy day tucked within this Christmas season. The 28th of December is kept within the church year as “Holy Innocents’ Day,” or more traditionally, “Childermas.” The “Children’s Mass,” remembers the account from the…
Let’s keep Herod in Christmas
By Brett Younger Twenty-eight Christmases ago I was the new pastor of Central Baptist Church in Paoli, Ind. I decided to have the church’s first ever Christmas Eve candlelight communion service. I wanted everything to be perfect. Snow fell that…
Overtaken by joy
By Molly T. Marshall It has been a cruel year, and we all struggle to make sense of the realities of our times. “Living in our own time, wisely” is a key spiritual practice, in the words of Diana Butler…
Crossing borders during Christmas
By Nora O. Lozano Two days ago, I started what has become a yearly journey to spend Christmas with my family in Mexico. During this season, this trip is convoluted. It seems that all the Paisanos (Mexicans living in the…