Isaac S. Villegas
February 16, Epiphany 6A (Matthew 5:21–37, Deuteronomy 30:15–20)
Idolatry is the desire to manipulate God.
My Muslim friend Ali and my Christian commitment to his life of faith
How American hostility toward Muslims has shaped my pastoral vocation
What if we treated all of creation—plants and stars, soil and rivers—as our kin?
Biblical scholar Mari Joerstad and indigenous activist Nick Estes challenge our human-centered worldview.
Children’s books for tough conversations
We asked 11 writers to tell us about a book that opens up space for adults and children to discuss important questions.
Tasting salvation during a fellowship meal at a maximum security prison
None of us wants it to end, because we know we'll never see each other again.
God's love, our bodies
Turned toward one another in worship, we experience the grace of God's gaze.
Unconverted difference (Acts 2:1-21)
The Spirit affirms our differences, speaking in ways that each of us can understand—yet also drawing us together.
Spiritual freedom in concrete form (Acts 1:15-17, 21-26)
In Acts, the gospel takes on organizational structure.
Faith after ascension (Ephesians 1:15-23)
We hope and pray that God will meet us, even if God feels absent to us.
May 20, Pentecost B (John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15)
Jesus has gone underground. That's the setting of our Gospel reading this Pentecost.
May 10, Ascension of the Lord (Luke 24:44-53)
The church organizes its life in the wake of absence.
Marielle Franco and the crucifixion of love
The Brazilian activist was killed by the same world that killed Jesus—a world that can’t bear love.
Encountering the Gerasene demoniac in an American prison
Incarceration is a tomb. It beats death into people.
At the deathbed of a man who cared for others
Every week, Cameron visited the lonely and afflicted. Now I’m visiting him.
A church for the kids: Why I still care about denominational politics
Denominational meetings can be difficult. My Sunday school class reminds me what's at stake.
Know the world, know yourself
Nature reveals itself as ruptured, as already profaned. To rest into a landscape is to be drawn into an adulterated history.
Two loves
“Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” The author of 1 John invites us to put our love into action—to love with our lives. Love is a commandment: “love one another, just as [Jesus] has commanded us.” If we follow this commandment to love, then we are in communion with God: “All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.”
April 26, Fourth Sunday of Easter: Psalm 23
When I pray the words of Psalm 23, the “you” I address them to is God. But I hope others will overhear.