The ER is a sacred space
Jay Baruch sees himself and other doctors as stewards of patients’ stories.
Holy Saturday in a harrowing time
Christ harrows hell, and nowhere are we beyond the hand that holds that harrow.
What we need from scientists
It’s hard enough to distinguish fact from fiction. Then there’s the matter of interpretation.
A psalm for the living
In his years as a pastor my husband read the 23rd Psalm at the bedsides of quite a few people who were dying. It was the most frequently requested passage among those who were facing their own going and still able to choose. When I began to volunteer for hospice, I found, as he had, that even for people who had wandered far from church, even for the skeptical and the uncertain, even for those who were unused to prayer and didn't want to be prayed over, the 23rd Psalm provided a place of return that was beautiful, familiar, inviting, and reassuring.
Extravagant delight
Perhaps there is a connection we shouldn't miss between David's dancing with all his might--uninhibited, unclad, unaware of disapproval--and the generosity with which he blesses and distributes food to all the people. Both are extravagant gestures that turn love into action, withholding nothing.
July 19, Ordinary 16B: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
“Many were coming and going, and they had no leisure, even to eat.” I think of the many lunches spent at my computer with a sandwich.
July 12, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Mark 6:14-29
I like Mark’s frequent mention of how people felt. In this week’s text, Herod is greatly perplexed about John the Baptist.
Discerning desire
I was 29, agonizing over a decision, when I came upon a little book by Robert Ochs.
The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature
Biblical material pervades the works of English literature. Bible stories have been retold, recast and reinterpreted....
Surprise and delight
I love Don Juel’s description of Jesus as a “master of surprise.” The ways Jesus reveals himself to his followers in the post-resurrection stories testify to his delight in surprising those who love him, and whom he loves.
Jesus’ moments of self-revelation are not only world-shaking but intimate, relational, invitational and even clever.
Sunday, April 14, 2013: John 21:1-19 (ESV)
One of my favorite lines in Hamlet is the prince’s reminder to Horatio, who is uncertain what to make of a ghost, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in...
A subversive message of peace
Not long ago I had a small epiphany at the airport. I was removing my jacket and boots, attempting to unzip my carryon and extract a laptop while checking my pockets for metal and nudging gray plastic bins toward a conveyor belt. I was trying not to hurry the person in front of me or delay the person behind, who waited grimly with shoes in one hand and an iPad in the other.
I started to laugh.
Sunday, April 7, 2013: Acts 5:27-32 (ESV)
Disobedience came hard for a nice girl like me. I was taught to respect authority, which I did, despite bumper stickers urging us to question it....
Prayer concern: Remembering all the victims of war
Each week my church includes a prayer for the families of American soldiers who have died. As the names are read, I try to hold them in prayer. But I have wrestled with these prayers.
Disrupted, by Julie Anderson Love
After her bleak diagnosis, Julie Anderson Love learned that hope has nothing to do
with passivity. She was, she writes, "the patient from
hell."
Speak Christian
Stanley Hauerwas's new book offers an exuberant retrospective on a life and career in which conversation, argument, reflection and proclamation have shaped and disciplined a remarkable body of work.