#SundayCoffee My Christianity has changed dramatically over the years. And far from being frightening, disorienting or confusing, it has been comforting, grounding, and expanding. In the evangelical world, we were (are?) taught to hold to unshakable truths. This is not a bad idea, but it is usually badly applied. What is unshakable is understood as “the Word of God,” that is, the physical book, the Bible (with a capital B). Heaven and earth will eventually pass away, but the Word of God stands forever, we are told. It is the only permanent truth, the firm foundation upon which to understand li ..read more

#SundayCoffee Simplicity, Love, and Joy This morning over coffee I read a post by a former evangelical questioning her own ability to trust herself in matters of faith. She’d been raised, as many of us had, in religious environments where we were taught to distrust our own understanding, that our hearts and minds were inherently deceitful, and the world was a trap of evil. The only sure and safe thing to believe is what we were taught the bible said. That was the truth. All else was to be distrusted. Now that she had distanced herself from that restrictive worldview, she felt unsure of herself ..read more

#SundayCoffee A thought on this week’s lectionary reading. “What is to stop me …?” An interesting question posed by an African eunuch on his way back home from worshipping in the Temple in Jerusalem. This week, churches around the world will be preaching about Philip, a leader in the early church, and the Ethiopian eunuch. And many will be sensitive to radical implications inherent in the story: a foreigner, a sexual-minority, someone “unclean” who would be rejected at the Temple, but welcomed into the new Christian faith. This same person, after likely having been challenged in certain Temple ..read more

#SundayCoffee “By what authority, and in whose name, do you do these things?” Getting into arguments on social media is its own punishment. But sometimes you just gotta. That’s how I felt this past week. And as they tend to do, the initial discussion took a sudden turn, this time into the current Israeli conflict. What dismayed me (I would say “surprised,” but it really was no surprise), was that the people I was engaged with, deep “Jesus-obeying” Christians, were loudly advocating for the bombing of Iran and further punishment of Palestinians in the guise of fighting Hamas. These were the peo ..read more

#SundayCoffee “Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures” I’m stuck on this sentence in today’s lectionary readings. It’s referring to the scene when the resurrected Jesus first appears to his male disciples (he’d already spoken to the women!), and they’re understandably shaken up and terrified. They don’t get it. They don’t understand. And their confusion, their shattered expectations, and now this sudden appearance of something shocking and so out of the ordinary — a dead man actually alive again and talking with them — completely disoriented them. But slowly they get it, and w ..read more

#SundayCoffee Blood and Brutality or Grace and Peace? I remember when I was a kid in Sunday School, and I asked the teacher about the sacrifices in the Old Testament. I guess the lesson that day had something in it about sacrifices, about taking an animal, a goat or a bull or a lamb, and tying it up, and cutting its neck, and having the blood spill everywhere. It seemed so cruel, so mean, to the animals who had done nothing to deserve that end. My parents had tried to raise us kids with compassion for animals — we had birds, turtles, mice, and a cat, and my mom was ALWAYS having to tell m ..read more

#SundayCoffee Messy endings just mean a new chapter is beginning Easter has never been one of my favorite holidays. As a kid, I looked forward to the chocolate bunnies and the candy, the colorful Easter baskets with fake colored straw, and the painted eggs. (What’s that all about, anyway?) But the resurrection of Jesus…? Okay, yeah, a fundamental of the Christian faith, but so what? The lesson, of course, is that bad situations don’t get the final word. Life ultimately overcomes death. Light ultimately overcomes darkness, even after the longest and most terrifying of nights. There’s something ..read more

#SundayCoffee Disappointment is part of the story This is Palm Sunday, and pulpits and sacred desks around the world will be talking about Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, hailed by crowds with palm branches and cloaks thrown on the ground. People, at least some of them, expected Jesus, the renowned miracle-worker and sage, to enter into the Temple, throw out the corrupt priests, and establish a holy headquarters for the next steps in retaking the country from the Romans and setting up God’s kingdom on earth. Didn’t work out that way. We all know the story. He does go into the Temple, a ..read more

#SundayCoffee #Lectionary Connecting with the Deeper — for your sake We all need a sign once in a while. Something, some signal, that our voice is being heard, that we are seen by the Great Other — God, the Universe, the Ground of Being, Source, and Ultimate Reality. How ever we conceive of the Higher Power, we need a moment of recognition now and then. Perhaps connection. Our Western, overly rationalized culture likes to think of itself as logical and scientific. But we’ve lost something in what philosophers call the “disenchantment of the world.” Our society has lost a sense of the “magical ..read more

Why Not John The Baptist? Have you ever been left out of a gathering or any situation that would have been extremely significant for you? It can be painful, and it will leave you scratching your head and wondering what you did wrong. Perhaps this is what John the Baptist (JB) felt as he languished in Herod’s prison cell. You see, Jesus was setting Israel ablaze with the Good News—the same Good News for which JB was sent by God to herald—but there he was, missing all the fun. After spending as much as a full year in jail, he finally broke down and had his disciples ask Jesus, “Are you the Messi ..read more