Matthew

Working with this week's apocalyptic Gospel text evokes memories of childhood experiences and teachings in a Mennonite congregation with a fundamentalist understanding of Bible and life. Within that setting, however, my family was solidly Anabaptist in outlook and rooted in social justice concerns. My public school was, for a community in the middle of rural Illinois, a virtual hotbed of ecumenicity, with all the major and many of the minor denominations represented. All this made for some interesting tensions, especially in a family with an ethos of discernment rather than rules.

As someone who is “first” in this world, am I in trouble with God?

How, in real life, do we love God and neighbor?

Let us imagine that humility was God’s gift to Paul at his conversion.

When early Christians saw the word robe, they thought of one thing only.

No political ethic without social location

I often feel like a religious leader standing under judgment.

We need to repent of offering the world our charitable leftovers and then pouting when the world doesn’t say thank you.