All Saints Day (Year B, RCL)

The myth that alternative gospels were suppressed by empire and only recently rediscovered is too good to be true.

“If John’s christological confessor is also the first person the risen Jesus appears to,” says biblical scholar Elizabeth Schrader Polczer, “that could make her a competitor to Peter’s authority.”

When our church offered Rosa sanctuary, our ordinary habits became a politics of hospitality.

Shakeshafte and Other Plays explores the messiness of language and meaning.

They put us in touch with essential things that we know to be dear or wrong.

It often works pretty well for us.

The prophet Isaiah sings an eschatological melody.

“Life is built, and then it stops, and then Christ reaches in and brings it forward again.”

Lazarus’s story is one of grief—and hope.

An incident in Germany reminded me who we all belong to.

Not just suffering

Maybe Jesus’ tears at Bethany come from more than grief.

Jesus acts in response to real human suffering and actual human tears.

What does it mean that Jesus weeps, when he knows Lazarus will be raised from the dead?

We embrace uninitiated visitors, rowdy children, and blue jeans. Why not tears?