Relating, Creating, Transforming
John 1:35-42 The last couple of years I have been wrestling with a question that probably I should continue to wrestle with: Where am I going? It’s really a question akin to what is the meaning of life I suppose, but where am I going rings truer for me, because I like movement and I’m […]
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Isaiah 11:1-4a It is December. It’s colder. The leaves are on the ground. Winter has come. Animals know it. They sense it—they go about their business getting ready for colder nights, gathering food and making more stable shelters. There is so much movement in nature at this time of year if you pay attention to […]
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John 11:38-44 The Binding of Gender It is not a stretch to claim that religious people, more specifically Western Christians, have had quite a lot of trouble with the idea of gender. We could spend hours discussing the patriarchal history and embedded male dominance of the Christian Church from its inception to the current day. […]
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Luke 17:11-19 [NRSV] 11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus* was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he entered a village, ten lepers* approached him. Keeping their distance, 13they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ 14When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ […]
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John 17:20-23; 26 I’ve been thinking a lot about how we see each other and treat each other.Sure, it is an election year and so that tends to contribute to all the crazies coming out. But it is disturbing just how many people right now [including the Republican candidate for president of the U.S.] say […]
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Luke 16:19-31 Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” ― Confucius Last time I talked a bit about empathy—how it can be defined and how in most people it is an innate quality, though something we have to cultivate and choose to do. We’ll keep going with that theme, but we are going to […]
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Luke 15:1-10 Empathy. Do you practice it? Do you experience it with others? What is empathy to you? For me, a simple definition of empathy is when I can imagine what another person is thinking or feeling—not like reading their mind, but just imagining what they think and/or feel, even if I have never experienced […]
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Jeremiah 18:1-4 I don’t know how many of you have ever made pottery or at least watched someone else do it. It is a fascinating process and one that requires great patience, care, and creativity. Also, at least in my case, pottery-making involves A LOT of mistakes and starting over again. Perhaps this is why […]
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Luke 10:38-42 What makes you feel distracted? What distracts you from being your true self? Facundo Cabral, Argentine singer, songwriter, and philosopher (1937-2011), once wrote about distraction and depression. Here is an excerpt: You are not depressed; you are distracted. You believe that you have lost something, which is impossible, because everything that you have was […]
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Luke 10:25-37 Whelp, this is a well-known story. I’ll try to highlight some of the details that may sometimes go unnoticed before I share some thoughts. First off, the person asking the question, “Who is my neighbor?” is a lawyer. Why that is significant is because of what lawyers do. Lawyers qualify and define elements […]
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