religion
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everyone is invited
And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers…” And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. We are told to… Continue reading
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the gospel according to Jayber Crow
Now, finally, I really had lost all desire for change, every last twinge of the notion that I ought to get somewhere or make something of myself. I was what I was. “I will stand like a tree,” I thought, “and be in myself as I am.” – Jayber Crow Who told you that you… Continue reading
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four years later
Four years ago I left my job at a church and everything changed. I changed. Fast forward. If you asked me, “What do you believe now?” I couldn’t give you a straight answer. (I hardly know, myself.) And you know what I’ve discovered? That’s okay. Not knowing is okay. Liminality is a very real existential… Continue reading
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the Lord’s prayer, revisited (part 7)
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. Not our kingdom. Not our power. Not our glory. It belongs to another. The only one worthy of it. The only one it cannot blemish or destroy. Whenever we take it upon ourselves we ruin it, it ruins us. Whenever we try… Continue reading
America, asking, bible, Christ, Christianity, church, deconstruction, doubts, empire, evangelicalism, Faith, forgiveness, God, Holy Spirit, hope, Jesus, love, peace, prayer, questions, reflection, religion, Searching, seeking, spirituality, the lord’s prayer, Theology, Trust, weekly reflections, worship -
the Lord’s prayer, revisited (part 6)
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: What does this mean? Save us from ourselves. God is not the cause of temptation, of our choices and actions, nor of the resulting suffering. If people are the problem then they can’t be the solution. So we pray, Deliver us. From ourselves, our… Continue reading
America, asking, bible, Christ, Christianity, church, deconstruction, doubts, empire, evangelicalism, Faith, forgiveness, God, Holy Spirit, hope, Jesus, love, peace, prayer, questions, reflection, religion, Searching, seeking, spirituality, the lord’s prayer, Theology, Trust, weekly reflections, worship -
the Lord’s prayer, revisited (part 5)
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Oh, forgiveness. One of the most difficult asks for humankind. You know. Who is it impossible to forgive? “With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Are we forgiven only as we forgive? Do we forgive because we’re forgiven, or are… Continue reading
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the Lord’s prayer, revisited (part 4)
Give us this day our daily bread. Yet they starve by the millions, your children, without bread or water. Children die sick in slums or in the streets. Thousands perish every single day from preventable causes. “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth… Continue reading
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the Lord’s prayer, revisited (part 3)
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Where is your kingdom? It is not in earth as it is in heaven. For what of the Ugandan boy who sat next to me in tears because someone he loved was dying or dead of AIDS. What of the young… Continue reading
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the Lord’s prayer, revisited (part 2)
Hallowed be thy name. The sacred name that’s been used by the apparent faithful throughout history to justify the persecution and killing of those who are different from and other than; the faithful who hold the supposed truth and dispense it by the sword (literally or figuratively). Look no further than our own scriptures. God-ordained… Continue reading
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the Lord’s prayer, revisited (part 1)
“Lord, teach us to pray.” Our Father which art in heaven, But only there, Lord? Far away up in the sky, above the clouds, beyond the universe, detached and out of reach? To say you’re in heaven makes it sound as if you’re distant, unavailable, like many of our own earthly fathers. Or like some… Continue reading
a kingdom built of seeds 