You desire truth in the inward being

Psalm 51 A few years ago I discovered that the author Flannery O’Connor’s prayer journal was going to be published. The book was released years after her death in 1964 at the age of 39, years after lupus finally killed her. Her estate decided to publish the prayer journal. Should we be reading this? I …

Joshua 24 remix for borderlands

I typed it out in the back of a van as we made our way from a graveyard for unidentified migrants who died in the desert near the border, to an emergency shelter for 120 Guatemalans dumped on the doorstep of a Catholic church in Tucson. These words are an experiment in reading my place …

Make Sure

Make sure. Make sure if you are sexually assaulted that someone sees it. Make sure to ask someone to bear witness, to take pictures and notes as you are forced into the woods or into a bedroom, pushed into the back of a car, or groped in a corner. Make sure you write it down, …

Patriarchy has no gender

This was a strange week to encounter the story of Joseph and his encounter with Potiphar’s wife. I have little doubt that most of you know that the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanugh is in upheaval. We learned this week that a psychology professor named Christine Blassey Ford shared a now public accusation of …

Ruth Communion

Ruth Communion Preface The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give God our thanks and praise. Invitation to Communion In the Torah our God of grace and mercy required …

As it happened

Ruth 2 Perhaps you heard it – the verb that is the axis of the second chapter of Ruth, one that is repeated over and over again. Glean. We hear the word glean twelve times in this chapter alone. Gleaning is the action that pushes the narrative along. Throughout history artists have depicted Ruth gleaning …

Ruth 1 – You. You. You.

Raleigh Mennonite Church July 29, 2018 It’s not unusual these days for us to see pictures like this one. In this one women and children are trying to rest on an over-crowded, rickety boat, escaping from the war or sexual violence or famine or political instability of their home country. When I look at these …

God alone is good

Raleigh Mennonite Church Exodus 20 A couple weeks ago we started talking about these commandments, these words passed down to God’s people at Mt Sinai after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. We talked about how these words are an invitation to freedom, words located in a God who sets people free. You are freed …

Thomas

It’s the Sunday after Easter, which means we’re remembering an Orthodox tradition that’s been celebrated for centuries. During the first week of Easter these Christians remembered the trick that Jesus played on the devil, tricking death on Easter morning. These Christians would play practical jokes and laugh and tell funny stories in memory of the …

Strange fruit and the banality of evil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI John 18 The philosopher Hannah Arnedt wrote an incredible book about her observation of the trial of Adolph Eichman, the Nazi who organized the transportation to the death camps in Germany during the Holocaust. When Eichman was finally put on trial after World War II Arnedt made this horrifying discovery. Eichman was a civil …