I'm a white male. So when I hear logic or reasoning or theology from other white men, I have an automatic affinity for it. They understand me. They are familiar. They are safe. There is a lot of value in being understood. We certainly should be familiar with ourselves and, by extension, people like us.…
We need to understand the difference between fact and truth if we are going to understand our Bible. To illustrate the difference, here is a fun example, if you will indulge me. One day a hare was bragging about how fast he could run. He bragged and bragged and even laughed at the tortoise, who…
This is one of my new favorite texts in the Gospels. John does a beautiful job of showing the power of the Christ and the development of the new creation. The healing of the blind beggar is another powerful reminder that the work of Jesus removes all barriers from around all people, bringing them all…
Man, I was fired up on my drive home and I was going to write this long rant about someone's bad theology and dangerous hermeneutic. But God is changing me. Don't get me wrong... I'm not all the way there, yet. It was still bad theology and a dangerous hermeneutic, but I'm not going to rant…
One of the most common questions I get asked is, "What should I be reading? Folks usually ask this casually and I, not understanding that everyone is not like me, will unload about 10-12 titles and authors in 30 seconds. I am blessed with an extreme desire to stay inside, sit still, and let my…
The Old Testament lesson from the lectionary this week is Habakkuk 1:1-4 and 2:1-4. Apart from having the most fun-sounding name among the minor prophets, Habakkuk's oracle is my favorite. Here are the opening lines: 1:1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you…
To hell with georgia. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are such an awesome football team! We run a unique, complex offensive scheme specifically engineered to negate our opponents' superior speed or strength, or both. We have more national championships than the puppies from athens, and our most recent one, as illustrated in the photo above,…
This week's gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary comes from Luke 19. Those of us with the unique pleasure of attending a Vacation Bible School will immediately start singing the song. "Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he!" Geez! Can you imagine if Zacchaeus was around to hear this song?…
Sin. Man, that is a nasty looking word. I could barely type it before loads of baggage started tumbling out from my past. We often think of sin as performing morally evil actions, such as lying or taking that extra cookie from the jar without our grandmother noticing (though I just learned the other day that…
DON’T RUN! I promise this isn’t a weird, touchy-feely kind of post. We tend to get a little skeptical when we hear that word, “contemplative.” I promise, wherever that discomfort comes from, I’m not going there. Over the summer I had an incredible opportunity to spend time in Albuquerque at a conference hosted by Richard…
Walking To Work 