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Brainrot gods and the rituals we use to summon them
Read more: Brainrot gods and the rituals we use to summon themThere is a rule in my house about video games. Before the kids can play it in my house, I’ve got to play it with them first. We learn about these games by playing them together. It helps me get an idea of like video game safety and how well policed any like chat features…
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What happens when we get to heaven and see people who hurt us on earth?
Read more: What happens when we get to heaven and see people who hurt us on earth?After the evening wound down, as we were preparing for bedtime, one of them took advantage of a quiet moment to pull me aside and get just a little bit sassy. You know, they said, “I still have my imagination. You can’t take that away from me. I’ve been imagining Roblox all night.”
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Why was the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” a bad thing?
Read more: Why was the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” a bad thing?So sometimes all I can do is ask, “do you trust that I want good things for you? Okay, that includes right now. I know this is hard. Try to trust that I want good things for you now, too.” In the book of Genesis, the character of God is often that of the divine…
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What is an “apocalypse?”
Read more: What is an “apocalypse?”That is certainly an interesting interpretation, but I don’t I don’t think it’s the point. The book talks about like dragons and stuff and even people in Mark’s day knew that like fire breathing dragons were not actually happening around them. I think there’s a different point to what to what John of Patmos is…
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Does God really forgive everyone? Even people orchestrate genocide?
Read more: Does God really forgive everyone? Even people orchestrate genocide?And in this context, the church is full of people who are developing an increasing level of anxiety about the status of Rome in their lives. They’re witnessing the Roman Empire get stronger and stronger, spread further and further, and they’re witnessing the rulers of that empire get more and more bananas and how they…
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Easter Sunday: Bestowing Life
Read more: Easter Sunday: Bestowing LifeThere’s this old adage that goes something like, “We do not prepare sermons. Sermons prepare us.” And as I kept trying to write about all of the hopeful stuff that comes with this week’s gospel proclamation, all the ways it is beautiful and surprising, I kept thinking about something entirely different. I couldn’t help think…
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All things new
Read more: All things newMany days I’ll wrap up my day job and drive over to the church so I can work on my sermon with the joyous applause of alcoholics and children of alcoholics and addicts and debtors and gamblers celebrating recovery in the background. And if I’m really lucky, once or twice a week, one of the…
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And the calm will be the better
Read more: And the calm will be the betterThey go out on the water, and a wild storm comes. The disciples are overwhelmed, by the storm, meanwhile, Jesus decides that rather than sleeping on the mountain when he’s done praying, he’ll just walk across the water, as one does, to join his friends on the sea. And during the fourth watch of the…
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Hope is the thing with feathers
Read more: Hope is the thing with feathersIn the five pericopes we read—the five little chunks of scripture—we saw Jesus’ interactions with the disciples, with the people of Israel, and with foreigners—and at times, his interactions are puzzling. But after spending the last week meditating on this, I think there’s a common thread here: Jesus invites everyone around to listen for, or…
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Fight, flight, freeze, fawn, flop, forget-about-it…
Read more: Fight, flight, freeze, fawn, flop, forget-about-it…A sermon on Luke 1:23-45 for Kensington Community Church on the second Sunday of Advent. This sermon series is structured after the theme “How does a weary world rejoice?” from A Sanctified Art. You’re probably already familiar with the concept of instinctive threat responses—the reactions our bodies choose between when we are afraid. Back in my day,…
God and us
A prophet’s true greatness is his ability to hold God and man in a single thought.
Abraham Joshua Heschel