Today, Christians in America tend to find ourselves in two reactionary camps: those into apologetics and those into apologies. Both sides come from a stance of fear. If we continue reacting from our defensive postures, then we have learned nothing from scripture, tradition, human experience or, God forbid, the Holy Spirit.
If you’re not outraged …
Several years ago, a bumper sticker popped up here and there that said, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” We need to print up some more of those for times like these. Love him or hate him, you’ve…
With fear, everything becomes a potential weapon, even church bells
Under a covered patch of brick in our church parking lot there hangs an enormous bronze bell. It dates back to 1887 and hung in our spire until a structural engineer submitted a report back in the 1960s telling us…
Creating our own American hell
In the last several days, I have watched yet more police shootings, with compelling video evidence that the use of such force was highly unjustified. I watched a United States senator handily dismantle a Wall Street banker (in a hearing…
What would happen if we set fear down?
You would think that after preaching almost four cycles of the Revised Common Lectionary a preacher would have at least one sermon on all the interesting texts that come around regularly. For some reason unknown to me, however, it turns…
Fear and the story we tell ourselves
It’s exhausting. The stories in my head. The imagined scenarios, assumed motives and relentless “what ifs” that make me question myself, think the worst of others and suck the joy out of life.
When Christians fear the wrong things.
There are a lot of things I fear. Like windows without blinds (seriously) and heights. And there are a lot of things I do not fear.
What is the number of gun deaths before we say ‘enough’?
There was another shooting last week. There isn’t anything remarkable about that. I didn’t even know about it. Except this one occurred in a church, during a worship service, when one parishioner became “verbally abusive and agitated” when another member…
Springsteen and Lent, part 3: Fear and love
I was reminded a few months ago when I visited Ginter Park Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., of the numerous scriptures in which the phrase “Fear not” appears. Some counts suggest that phrase and similar phrases appear 365 times — one…