Good and gracious God, In a world where you can love your family and love your car, it can be difficult to truly understand the love we are called to practice. With so many ideas and understandings of love we provide ourselves with a buffet of choices for how to treat our neighbor and still … Continue reading Loving Others [A Prayer]
In his dictum entitled, Evangelii Gaudium, or The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis puts it this way, “We can no longer trust in the unseen forces and the invisible hand of the market.” He goes on to call for a redistribution of wealth and reform of economic structures that would ensure greater equality of … Continue reading The Un-Christian Reality of Capitalism
Is this really what we've come to? A bunch of conservative white folks with enough money to buy sportswear that's overpriced because Nike put their little swoosh logo on it are protesting Nike's selection of Colin Kaepernick as the face of their “Just Do It” campaign by cutting off the swoosh logo or burning products … Continue reading Destroying Nike Sportswear is a Fake Protest Over Fake Outrage
Good and gracious God, Sometimes we get so caught up in planning the future and remembering the past that we miss opportunities in the here and now. Rather than focusing on the realities of now, we concentrate on skewed memories of what was or hopeful projections of what could be. Call us to each moment. … Continue reading Living in the Moment [A Prayer]
It is far too easy to believe that achieving true justice through active, non-violent resistance is just a pipe dream. That it is a lovely concept, but that it is mostly ineffective when placed within the context of the modern realities of power and dominance. The reality is that nothing could be further from the … Continue reading Non-violently Bending the Moral Arc of the Universe
“Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular … Continue reading Nationalism is Destroying Spirituality and Society
Good and gracious God, I suppose I'm one of those 'idiots' who can find you in a sunset. I see you in the swooping play of seagulls and in the quiet stillness of deep waters. I have heard a silent hymn sung by the light of the Milky Way and I have heard the choral … Continue reading Finding God in the Sunset [A Prayer]
People who don't know me reasonably well are typically very surprised to hear this and frequently don't even believe me: I am an introvert. At times, I'm a pretty severe introvert. So, it's not much of a surprise that I, as an introvert, have decided to write about being quite – because, frankly, I love … Continue reading Quiet Please (Refresh Yourself)
God of all nations and peoples, We come before you rejoicing in many languages. We give thanks for the movement of your Spirit. And even as we do, we confess that sometimes we fear the Spirit and its proclivity for being unruly, unexpected, unconventional and down-right unconcerned with what we want or how things have … Continue reading Pentecost [A Prayer]
Good and gracious God, Far too frequently we find ourselves taking on the moniker of Christian but not following through with the behavior which should accompany that name. We gossip about our neighbor. We dispense judgements against those who are different from us. We leap to negative conclusions about others when their behavior doesn't match … Continue reading Being a Follower [A Prayer]
