To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up.
For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.
One day I was looking through old journals of mine when I came across a curious entry. In high school I was trying to figure out who I was, what my gifts were, what God might require of me. And I wrote that I remembered worshiping on Sunday morning in our church’s new sanctuary. We were a mission congregation, and we had just completed one more section of the church building—a sanctuary. I was sitting with my family, listening to the pastor, who was an engaging speaker, and also listening to the hymns and the liturgy, when an alien thought crossed my mind: If I were a man, that is what I would want to do.
