Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A, RCL)

Augustus and Nero also offered peace and security for those who fell in line. Paul critiques them in his epistle to the Romans.

A Quaker colleague taught me how stillness exercises agency, how it acts upon worshipers.

Do antisemitic appeals to the Bible always constitute an abuse of scripture? Would that it were so simple.

The pastor gave me a tract with Psalm 46 when I was 15 and hospitalized after I had overdosed.

Most nights, my bedtime prayer with our two oldest boys begins like this:

Be still and know that I am God.

My radiation treatment meant I'd lose my voice for six weeks, and our church couldn't afford pulpit supply. So the people decided to be my voice.

We began our business meeting in the chapel with dimmed lights. I led the board through several calming prayers, noticing our breath and heartbeats.

We will not fear even if the very foundations of the earth are shaken. So says the psalmist. Rarely do I live as though it were true. I wonder how many people do.