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I
have a friend who washes windows for a living. I don't know what he used
to do. According to him he raised horses, made a lot of money, owned
everything he wanted and drank heavily. He more or less stumbled into
Jesus through an introduction from another friend of mine, an Adventist
pastor. Now he and Jesus are tight, he's been sober for five or six
years, and he
Since this seems to be "bare your soul week" at DT, I'm going to take
the chance today to let you know that I prefer the beatitudes in Matthew
over those found in Luke's text for this All Saints' Day, and I'll tell
you why.
Before his assassination Archbishop Romero of El Salvador had a practice
of reading at the Eucharist the names of members of his church who had
either ‘disappeared’—or died the previous week. As the prayers of the
community were spoken—the names were be lifted up one after another.
I suppose I should have said something about being Lutheran this week, after all Reformation is the Lutheran 4th
of July and you wouldn't celebrate independence without some flag
waving and fireworks.
I readily admit that readings such as today's gospel make me a bit
uncomfortable. When Jesus starts talking about being "cast into hell"
or how "whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be
forgiven," I struggle to fit this in with other images of Jesus eating
with tax collectors and sinners, with his call to love and pray for
your enemies. Perhaps, as a modern "liber
This past Saturday, I attended John Stackhouse’s
lectures on faith, reason, and the new atheism down at the Vancouver
Island Conference Centre. Evidently, there is still some interest in
this topic as the event sold out—even in hyper-secular Nanaimo!
My friend, Larry Kamphausen, posted an interesting essay on his blog recently. You can read it here. He's struggling publicly with what it means to be stuck, caught between two (or more) ecclesial realities. He says:
My job often has me walking down hospital hallways. Today it was at
St Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ypsilanti where a parishioner is recovering
from pneumonia. Last week he slept as I sat in the room and worried
about him, but today he met me with a smile. He explained a procedure
I didn’t understand. Medical information seldom sticks in my brain.
Enough to
I prayed with a young man today for healing - specifically healing from the bondage of evil spirits - which doesn't happen a lot in my ministry.
He is from Congo - more fluent in French than English - which also took
some careful listening. As he told his story, it became clear that his
concerns are real and deep and have wounded him for a long time.
