You have heard me say before that when I find a passage from Scripture that I want to avoid I find that it is better for my spiritual health to throw myself into it than to avoid it. I realized recently that I am not applying this discipline in all circumstances—I avoid Paul’s letters like […]
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (John 1:1-2) And this Divine Multiplicity of Being that was relationship within the Divine self […]
Over the past few years, I have noticed that a new expression has entered the everyday speech of many Americans: “Living your best life.” There are hundreds and hundreds of self-help books carrying this title or this phrase within their titles. If you google the phrase, you will get millions of results for websites and […]
Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity (it did not need changing)! Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God.[1] My spiritual practice during Advent this year was to read Richard Rohr’s book, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis Assisi. Rohr is an American Franciscan priest […]
I love our Gospel passage from Luke for this morning for a couple of reasons. First it is the only story we have from the time between Jesus’ birth and infancy and the start of his public ministry. But I mostly like it because it is so reflective of life as I experience it. We […]
4 BCE. The likely year of Jesus’ birth. Caesar Augustus was emperor, the man previously known as Octavius, and great-nephew of Julius Caesar. Wikipedia says in its introduction to the entry about Caesar Augustus that he was one of the most effective leaders in human history. This interpretation depends upon where you stood in the […]
This morning on this first Sunday after Christmas we hear yet another Christmas story. Only this story from John is different from the nativity story we heard from Luke on Christmas Eve or the nativity story in Matthew. We have no angels, shepherds, or virgin births in stables. Instead, we have the story behind the […]
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness–on them light has shined. . . . For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, […]