Tuesday, December 9, 2025
John 1:10-13 NIV He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Monday, December 8, 2025
Why is it so important that Mary was a virgin? I’m not a feminist theologian and can’t speak anything approaching authoritatively on the subject, but I’ve got some ideas. Sex is icky. People are icky. We are all tainted by original sin, which, apparently, is transmitted by sex.1 Jesus’ birth had to be extra special, just like Caesar’s. Jesus’ father was God, not Joseph. (See also points 1,2&3.)2 Yes, I’m being tongue in cheek, but I really do believe most of the arguments for Mary being a virgin are post-hoc and performative.
Monday, December 8, 2025
Jesus did not come to lead the kind of rebellion fist century Jews wanted, but he was definitely opposed to empire. I’ve often heard it said that Jesus was unconcerned with politics and the governments of “the world”, but that is far from true. Jesus was very concerned with governing justly, but he didn’t teach using violence to change an unjust government. Bringing down and replacing unjust rulers may well have been within his goals, but that would be achieved by inverting our assumptions about politics to subvert unjust rulers and bring about the kingdom of God.
Sunday, November 30, 2025
It’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving, not even December yet, and Advent is here. Ack! I’m not ready! I’ve been reading books to calm my anxious questions and put myself in the proper frame of mind, but I still don’t know how to celebrate Christmas when I am so uncertain of what happened and who Jesus was. I’ve been thinking about music since last September, but I still haven’t started practicing or even figuring out how to play what I want.
Saturday, November 22, 2025
I have said I am agnostic, not antagonistic and that I hold a generous agnosticism. I am not so much skeptical of God as I am of certainty about God. Furthermore, I want to both know about God and to know God deeply, but I have found that my ability to do so is limited. Divine hiddenness is, at this point, more real to me than the divine, and that makes me sad.
Friday, July 25, 2025
I Will Not Destroy [!Bible] Genesis 9:8-13 NRSVUE Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Look upon us, O Lord, and let all the darkness of our souls vanish before the beams of thy brightness. Fill us with holy love, and open to us the treasures of thy wisdom. All our desire is known unto thee, therefore perfect what thou hast begun, and what thy Spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer. We seek thy face, turn thy face unto us and show us thy glory.
Thursday, July 3, 2025
Matthew 18:15-17 NRSVUE “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If you are listened to, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If that person refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector.
Saturday, June 7, 2025
I’ve been thinking a lot about faith—what it is, how it affects my life, how I express it, how to grow it—and I want to wrangle all those wild and scattered thoughts into something coherent, if not comprehensive. In other words, I don’t have any easy answers or even firm conclusions; I just want to understand where my brain is at, and writing helps me do that. It has been said that faith is risk plus direction.
Monday, May 5, 2025
Steve Calos was a character. He was a Greek American United Methodist minister with Greek Orthodox cousins, Baptist cousins, Pentecostal cousins, Methodist cousins, and Catlick (Catholic in Greek American) cousins. He had a wicked sense of humor and a passion for pastoral ministry. Steve was also immensely practical and didn’t much mix with holy roller types. While he was extroverted and effusive, I’d guess he was allergic to Christianese and wasn’t one to see angels and demons behind every rock and tree.
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Ten years ago, on the Saturday before Christmas, 2014, I woke in a state of intense fear. This was both unexpected and the culmination of of years of anxiety and frustration. While it felt like the end of my world at the time, the changes I had to make in order to recover were the end of a lot of unhealthy thoughts and habits and the beginning of living a much healthier and happier life.
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
From Lectio365 this morning: Psalm 9:9-10 NLT The LORD is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O LORD, do not abandon those who search for you. I’m searching in a big way, and I’m trying to trust that God will not abandon me.
Monday, January 6, 2025
Listening to the story of the Magi this morning, I was prompted ponder again, how do I believe. I struggle even to explain the question: It is practical. It is not hypothetical. I am trying to determine how to approach faith and scripture in ways that are both respectful and realistic. What hermeneutic do I use to understand passages that are likely ahistorical? What value can I derive from archetypal stories?
Hi neighbors—I’m testing cross-posting from micro.blog to other services I use. Feel free to say “hi”. :-)
Friday, December 20, 2024
Anyone who grew up in an even remotely liturgical church community has heard of Advent. The rest of us have seen Advent calendars, with tiny doors concealing tinier candies. And anyone who has seen Christmas Vacation knows Advent is when Clark Griswold spreads mayhem and puts up far too many Christmas lights. What is Advent? It is the liturgical season which begins the church year and when we prepare for Christmas.
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
This is a phrase has been part of the week’s prayer of approach from Lectio365: Lord, as I meditate on your word and learn from your Church, teach me what it means to “pray without ceasing” ( 1Thess 5:17 ). Holy Spirit, wake me up to your constant presence and prune my priorities so I can go further in prayer-fueled mission. Prune is a wonderful, positive word to express trimming back our commitments and activities to strengthen that which is most likely to flower and bear fruit.
Saturday, August 17, 2024
I’m reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson because she is coming to speak at the University this fall, and I just finished the chapter, The Container We Have Built for You. Lordy, but that was a tough slog. Not because the material was too academic or hard to understand—to the contrary, Wilkerson is an experienced journalist and writes beautiful and accessible prose. No, the issue was that what she wrote was all too plain and, to me, familiar because of the study I have done.
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Good lord, do I want to do this? I imported my State of Faith and Saving My Faith documents from Ulysses into Obsidian, along with most of my State of Faith notes, with the idea that I’d like to develop that more and possibly even finish it. It’ll be different than it would have been if I’d finished it a year ago, and even some of what I’d polished will change.
Monday, December 25, 2023
A random thought about the prayer of St. Francis occurred to me a few days ago that I wanted to share. He probably didn’t actually write the prayer, but lots of good stuff is pseudepigraphic, including large parts of scripture. This is what struck me: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith;
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Seriously. What do I want from God? Let me take a step back. The question of what I want arises from losing any certainty about God and faith. I know what I was taught, but my assurance that what I was taught was true was vaporized in the implosion of American Evangelicalism and its nearly unanimous support for a troop of horribly behaved goons led by Donald Trump. I still believe there is a God, and I believe that God does not endorse coarse, philandering bullies as leadership material.