Citizens of Heaven
The church and the world have a murky relationship. Historically we’ve tended to either embrace worldly power to try and create Christian empires or withdraw entirely writing off the world as a doomed and broken place. That said there have been lots of individuals and communities who’ve walked a line somewhere in between. This blog is for people looking for that challenging middle way between embracing worldly power and forsaking the world God loved into being.
Be spirited
Breathe deeply today. Be Spirited. Continue reading
Personally collective
On Good Friday, many of us will pray a long litany of repentance. Some of that litany will apply to us individually, and some will not. Regardless, it’s possible for our collective confession to be no less real, and no less personal, than an individual one as we lift the collective brokenness of our world to God. Continue reading
Extravagance
Simplicity as an expression of my love for God is good. But it’s good because that simplicity in my own life frees me to be an extravagant giver of all the good I have to God’s good world. Continue reading
Community needs
Community is a funny thing. Many of us hold it as an important value in our faith “communities” and our lives. Interestingly, the very idea that we need to hold it as a value may indicate something particular about life in our context. Continue reading
Practical questions
Being loving, compassionate, faithful, and humble are essential for all of us. Still, it’s worth asking whether our day to day choices reflect the ideals of our faith. Continue reading
Tell me where it hurts
Nobody likes pain. But pain serves a useful purpose. Sadly, what works with pointy stick and rocks doesn’t work with emotional pain. Continue reading
What did you just say?
At the root of it, language is sacred as a tool for revealing truth, whether that’s empirical data, spiritual truth, truer relationship, or a truer sense of ourselves. Sometimes, those truths will be revealed not by the specificity of the words, but by the way they are used. And sometimes, it will be as simple as speaking true words, earnestly. Continue reading
Well, what do you expect?
Our tradition is rich with images of how the Divine breaks into the world. Some of these moments would be impossible to miss and others so easy that if we weren’t expecting them we wouldn’t see them. So, the question stands for all of us: what do you expect? Continue reading
Violence
If what we want is to remove a concrete and physical threat, then we can talk about violence. If what we want is to be safe and live in peace, we better talk about something else. Continue reading
Entitlement and creation
Dominion over something that was never ours to begin with, or domination over something to which we feel entitled? If I believe that all of creation, everything that makes up the material universe living and not, springs from the same source, have I reckoned the cost of what I want on that creation? Have I considered that it too is loved by God and have I treated it with love? Continue reading
