Sunday, October 4, 2020 | Reflections
Sunsets in the desert can be spectacular. The sun emits colors across the spectrum; the different wavelengths of those colors make the sky appear blue during the day. As the sun sets, warmer shades of gold, orange, and red fill the horizon. The particular kind of...
Saturday, October 3, 2020 | Reflections
Just after college, I spent two years teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. While I had traveled abroad, this was my first time to live overseas. One important thing I learned was not to take my US citizenship for granted. The privileges and power it provided were...
Friday, October 2, 2020 | Reflections
We don’t know much about many of the Old Testament prophets. Scripture doesn’t detail Hosea’s background and Elijah doesn’t even have a job, much less a backstory. Amos apparently tended trees and flocks before being called to preach God’s message to the powerful;...
Thursday, October 1, 2020 | Reflections
From the Archives: April 7, 1954If, in the face of religious doubts and difficulties, we yield to the temptation to abandon what faith we have, what we are really saying is, “If I can’t understand everything, I won’t try to understand anything. If I….(View this...
Wednesday, September 30, 2020 | Reflections
What I love most about studying scripture is that they teach through narrative. There is no directive that stands untroubled or unquestioned. The commands of the Old Testament are reinterpreted through the New Testament.The red-letter words of Jesus cross each other...
Tuesday, September 29, 2020 | Reflections
The word bless has many meanings depending on the subject that is blessing and the object that is being blessed. Its most familiar form means to invoke or confer divine favor upon. This is what we mean when God blesses us or when a person (often clergy) blesses...
Monday, September 28, 2020 | Reflections
The “fishers of men” image is a powerful and familiar one. It can also be one that puts the power and the gain into the fisherman’s hands: the net, the boat, the meal, all things that clearly empower the fisherman over the fish. When this is translated in English as...
Sunday, September 27, 2020 | Reflections
I can do a lot of things. But the will to do them can be harder to come by. I know how to work out, eat better, get organized, respond to emails, give frequent high-quality feedback. Sustaining the will to do things that are hard is…hard. Paul reminds us that the...
Saturday, September 26, 2020 | Reflections
Some days are worse than others. Things do not go well at work. We are at odds with someone we love. Our bodies fail.It’s easy for me to get stuck in a downward spiral on these days, full of resentment and regret. The hurt becomes all-encompassing, and it is nearly...
Friday, September 25, 2020 | Reflections
Sometimes, God offers me the opportunity to see things from a different perspective. I stopped kneeling to receive the eucharist. I had done this for years, harkening back to that beautiful Catholic response: “only say the word, and I shall be healed.” And then I got...
