First Sunday of Advent (Year 1, NL)

Whatever the historical reasons for the crucifixion, the Christian tradition has always insisted that one of the reasons Jesus died is me. 

What is a preacher to do with Palm/Passion Sunday?

Matthew’s Passion doesn’t show us Jesus’ reactions. We just see his pain and hear his silence.

I am struck by how Christ’s desert experience relies on inner convictions resisting an external voice.

You can live a long time off a vision like the transfiguration. But there is much else in this world we must look at, from which we dare not avert our eyes.

We are one body, even as the world comes apart.

In catacombs, crypts, and ossuaries, I’ve seen the ugliness of death transformed into something beautiful.

Holly Carey turns up the brightness on the most faithful disciples in the gospels: the women.

Minister and veteran David Peters invites us to consider our own post-traumatic identities in a new light. 

In Oberammergau, the keepers of a centuries-old tradition have made
big changes—including efforts to expunge antisemitic material.

What ritual remedies exist to sharpen our spiritual attention, focus, and clarity?

“Each of the typical approaches has problems. The best solution would be to change the lectionary.”

There is something about the wail of a bagpipe that seems especially appropriate this Sunday.

The Passion reveals the many gods of my own making.

What does it mean to protect women and girls?

Matthew's writing is terse. This hasn't stopped some from imagining grimmer details.

The story of Jesus’ unjust trial and wrongful conviction must not be romanticized.

On this week's Sunday Morning Matinee, Matt and Adam talk skateboarding, family, brokenness, and Bing Lau's incredible film Minding the Gap.