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Today being Christ the King Sunday, and myself never having lived under the authority of an earthly king, I thought I’d better do some research into how my peers think about kings. So I did what contemporary people do, and turned to the Oracle of Mountain View—that being Google—for insight.
I figured that … Read the rest
Continue reading "Jesus & Jonathan Haidt" »
Friends, how did you get in here? That’s a serious question. Did you walk, drive, take the train? Did you come through the south or north doors, or through the slype, that little vestibule over there? When you arrived, did someone greet you with kindness, hand you a bulletin, tell you where to take your children or show … Read the rest
“There’s no way out,” lamented a headline from Houston this week. Of all the horrifying and heartbreaking reportage from the flood zone, this one felt the most personal because just a week ago Saturday I was sitting in an eerily quiet airport terminal in Austin Texas, similarly wondering if there were a way out. Which of course there … Read the rest
Continue reading "It's All One Way" »Have any of you parents out there had the experience of your young children learning a classroom lesson on the environment and then becoming the household garbage police? I admit it, my children were the ones who insisted—leaving no room for negotiation—that I separate waste from recyclables.
I may not have been an early adopter, but of course … Read the rest
Continue reading "Furnace of Angels" »In the 2012 movie “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” manager Sonny Kapoor has marketed the Jaipur hotel he inherited from his father as a retirement home for budget conscious English retirees. The place is terribly dilapidated—basically it’s a wreck—so central to the narrative is how a small colony of English expats adjust to the reality of an Indian … Read the rest
Continue reading "If it's not all right, it's not the end" »
Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?
Sometime in the 12th century, this phrase, or something like unto it, was reputedly said by King Henry II to his courtiers. They interpreted it as a command to murder Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had been challenging the king in matters of property and legal … Read the rest
Continue reading "Pride and Priestliness" »
Others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
You and I probably know a few of those sneering others. Maybe we heard them say things like “those are just a bunch of coastal elites.” Or “they voted for crooked Hillary,” or even—tragically if falsely—“Get off the bus and get out of the country because you don’t … Read the rest
Continue reading "Curious to Hear" »Am I losing my mind?
That’s what my friend Lisa asked recently. Now there’s no shortage of reasons why followers of Jesus might ask that question at this time of year. Mary Magdalene and Mary, were you losing your minds when you snuck off to see the tomb of one so shamefully executed? Or when an angel sent … Read the rest
Continue reading "Easter Community Guidelines" »“What was written in former days was for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope,” wrote the author of the letter to the Romans. Which sounds comforting in a season when I am actively searching for signs of hope. And of course there are plenty: even in the … Read the rest
Continue reading "Things Hoped For" »In these final painful days of our electoral season, when saintliness seems remote from the public sphere, the familiar words of what’s popularly known as the Golden Rule: “do to others as you would have them do to you” seem to take on a special urgency. Mostly because they are the words of our Lord, whose teaching I … Read the rest
Continue reading "Subjunctive Saints" »
