All Saints Day (Year A, RCL)

As theophanies go, this one is oddly comforting.

Gabriel Said Reynolds puts the two sacred texts into respectful, honest conversation.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders was denied a meal at a Virginia restaurant. I wonder who's welcome at our table.

What would the global church look like if we all honored our ancestors as members of the communion of saints?

From dust I came and to dust I shall return—but not forever.

Poverty of spirit, like any kind of poverty, is unenviable but survivable.

Sarah Ruden writes some of the most sumptuous words about Bible words I’ve ever read.

The preacher is still green! Maybe we'll hear something hopeful.

I don’t like this. When I mourn I want to not mourn anymore.

Two refreshing new books place the storyteller within the story he tells.

How is it that the poems of a 17th-century aristocrat still resonate with us?

“You, Lord, are both Lamb and Shepherd.” So begins “Christus Paradox,” a hymn penned by Sylvia Dunstan more than three decades ago. According to notes on the hymn text, Dunstan first scribbled down the lyrics--rich with paradoxical, tension-laden images of Jesus--while she rode the bus home after a difficult day of prison chaplaincy.

A shepherd’s staff has a crook for drawing the sheep away from danger, and a blunt end for prodding them toward places they would rather not go. This week’s texts embrace the tension between the two in the shepherd’s role.

Readers who found Pastrix to be a long, cool drink will find more refreshment here. Those who have tired of Nadia Bolz-Weber's cranky schtick will tire of it here as well.

To be a follower of the one who promised that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed is to expect a blessed in-breaking of peace.

Social microhistories can capture big ideas. I’d like to write one on pickles, which are as fundamental to civilization as anything in Chesterton’s pockets.