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.
On a warm September night nearly a decade ago, I drove north to baptize my 29-year-old cousin on his deathbed. Collateral complications from opioid use. We had been messaging about the possibility of baptism in the weeks before he died. Five years later, his brother was felled by fentanyl. We had long been out of touch. And so, as for many Americans, the opioid crisis feels to me both near and far. The battle with this particular addiction has not entered my immediate household, but it is all around. We search for doors to understanding what is happening: through documentaries like The Crime of the Century, novels like Demon Copperhead, and music like Jelly Roll’s Grammy-winning contemporary country album Beautifully Broken.
