Feb 16, 2023 | confession, discipleship
Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? … [The One] who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision. – Psalm 2:1, 4 (NRSV) The psalmist’s “why” isn’t a hard question to answer. Why do the nations conspire? For wealth, for power,...
Sep 13, 2022 | discipleship, theodicy
Understand, O dullest of people; fools, when will you be wise? The one who planted the ear also hears. The one who formed the eye also sees. The one who teaches knowledge to humankind also chastises. That same one knows our thoughts, which are but an empty breath....
Aug 8, 2022 | discipleship, vocation
I’ve been trying to climb your plumb line, O God, as if it is a measure of success or a ladder to security. When the wall showed signs of toppling, I leapt to the line to rise above it all. Forgive me. When the locusts swarmed and the harvest was threatened...
Jul 24, 2022 | discipleship, nature, prayer
Thirty sparrows clamor around the bird feeder while a squirrel plots its route to the same, and I wonder if this is faithfulness: to know what is needed and to crave it solely. Give us this day our daily bread, for you will give what is good, O God. Now let us be...
Jun 30, 2022 | discipleship, images of God
King Manasseh did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh. He built altars for all the host of heaven and served them. He made his son pass through fire. He practiced soothsaying and dealt with wizards. He set a carved image of Asherah in the house of Yahweh, provoking...
May 17, 2022 | discipleship, racism, women
Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” – Acts 11:1-3...
