A Litany for Ash Wednesday — I am in the mind of God from eternity and always on God’s mind. My mind is in the gutter, fixed on what is passing away. I am God’s handiwork, expertly knit together in my mother’s womb. The tapestry my life weaves is chaotic and falling apart. God delights in…

The disaster of Ukraine, the bravery of her people, and the opportunity to do what we are called to do in this moment. — When it comes to Putin’s aggressive invasion of Ukraine and the murder and harm he is inflicting on my fellow humans there, leveling suburbs and destroying cities, I am sickened and angered, as I was when he did these same things in Syria, to the cities of Homs and Aleppo…

An Instructional Devotion and an Encouragement to Practice — Making the sign of the cross comes to us from the same churches that gave us the New Testament, a practice so common that Tertullian (160–240) said the first Christians wore out their foreheads signing themselves. Gregory of Nyssa lists it first among their common practices including prayer, confession, and…

I have come to appreciate when the retail-driven Christmas draws to a close and the more ancient celebration of the Twelve Days of Christmas begins. — Our cultural routines are lately predictable: on December 26 the easy listening channels stop broadcasting 24-hour Christmas music, Valentine candy replaces Christmas candy in the grocery and drugstores, and folks post pictures of their packed-up ornaments and tossed-out trees on social media and everyone — including a lot of Christians…

Pondering the neglected, yet indispensable end of the story of God with us. — Against our attempts to make the resurrection a ghost party, like a wisp of fog on hot tea, Jesus appears among us with “real wounds,” shows us that resurrection is a matter of flesh and bones, of broiled fish and honeycomb. His wounded body, a body that yet eats, a…

The life of the human God is our measure of right from wrong. — I frequently run into the argument that God can do whatever he wants because he is God. Partnered with this assertion is often an accusation that human “sensibilities” about what is right and wrong are not the same as God’s — that his ways are higher than our ways —…

Are we the early church? And does the end we imagine for the body of Christ match the human story of her powerless Lord? — If the human story continues another 8000 years, when humans look back to our time they will talk about the last 2000 years as but the beginning of Christianity. What if, contra so much speculation of the last century and more, the gospel is just starting to convert the world?

Time for the church’s leaders to dispel lies and protect life. — Time for some honesty. For five years the President has said and done things that I felt we should not tolerate in a leader of the nation. I used to be quite vocal about it but there was always a pattern in response: that’s not what he said (though I…

Infinity, it seems, can be spoken without words. — When God created the visible (and invisible) universe he spoke words — ”let there be light” — and things that were not in one moment began to exist in the next. Stars. Planets. Oceans. Mountains. Trees. Animals. Flowers. All these things and more were breathed into existence by God. When…