Relating, Creating, Transforming
Romans 13:8-11a Matthew 18:15-20 Sell your crap. Pay your debt. Do what you love. This was the title of Adam Baker’s TED TALK in 2011—the story of how his family moved away from being the “typical” debt-laden U.S. family trapped by the next thing to buy to a family that envisioned freedom from that debt […]
Read MoreMatthew 16:13-20 I’ve been reading Bart Ehrman’s book, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, over the last few months. I’m taking my time. It is a book that I think people who identify as Christians should most certainly read. It took Ehrman, a NT scholar, eight years to research […]
Read MoreMatthew 14:22-33 The Hobbit, a book by JRR Tolkien, begins with this line: “in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” The author Tolkien lets us the reader know that this is not a nasty or unkempt hole, like the lair of a mouse, but rather a cozy place, filled with fine furniture, […]
Read MoreJohn 14:15-21 That was a scene from the last movie of the Matrix trilogy, Matrix Revolutions. Neo, a human being played by Keanu Reeves, meets a family. This “family” is made up of all computer programs in the virtual reality called the matrix. The father, Rama-Kandra, tells Neo that he loves his his daughter, Sati, […]
Read MoreJohn 10:1-10 and Psalm 23 A SIDE NOTE: Not really sure why, but recently Rihanna’s song We Found Love has been in my head. I really don’t have any idea if her song has anything to do with what it makes me think about it. But I will just say that the phrase “We found […]
Read MoreMatthew 21:1-11 Hosanna, Hey-sanna, Sanna, sanna, ho! I am conditioned at this time of year to hear that song and to see the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, because I actually saw the original Jesus Ted Neely perform in a live stage version a long time ago. For some reason, it stayed in my mind. […]
Read MoreJohn 11:1-45 Now look, I don’t know if you watch The Walking Dead on television or if you’re into zombie movies like Night of the Living Dead, REC, Dawn of the Dead, World War Z, or 28 Days Later. I am not sure if the idea of a once-dead human being rising from death to […]
Read MoreJohn 4:5-26 What are some specific places or activities that cause you to feel the presence of G-d? Where or when is God especially absent from you? Where do we think that God or the Divine or the Great Spirit or the Eternal Consciousness is? Here? [Sikh Gurdwara] Or here? [Hindu deities] Or here? […]
Read MoreJohn 3:1-9 Last week, I participated in the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia’s Interfaith Encounters Alternative Spring Break program for college students. I journeyed with students, faculty, and college staff professionals to encounter seven different religious traditions, including: Reconstructionist Jewish; Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christian; Sikh; Quaker; Won Buddhist; Hindu; Black Muslim and Sunni Muslim. There […]
Read MoreMatthew 17:1-9 On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed a large crowd inside a church in Memphis, Tennessee. He spoke about the history of the struggle for civil rights in the United States and the difficult days ahead. Towards the end of his sermon, King raised his voice as he was known to […]
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