“I LOVE THE RECKLESSNESS OF FAITH. FIRST YOU LEAP, AND THEN YOU GROW WINGS.” (William Sloane Coffin) On this blog you will find several articles and sermons on “faith.” In those articles you will see that most of the time the word “faith” in the Bible has the basic meaning… Continue reading
THE GOSPEL IS NOT A FIRE INSURANCE POLICY FOR THE NEXT WORLD,BUT A LIFE ASSURANCE POLICY FOR THIS WORLD. (Richard Rohr,Eager to love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi) I grew up in a denomination which most would assume was obsessed with “saving souls for heaven.” Since the late… Continue reading
Years ago a parishioner in the church I was pastoring said, “I love everybody.” She then hesitated and said, “I love everybody except atheists. I hate atheists!” I asked her how many atheists she had ever known in her life. She admitted to having known none. I knew it was… Continue reading
(based in large part on the exegesis of Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann) In an earlier sermon I shared with you the consensus of Old Testament scholars that these opening chapters of Genesis represent centuries of tradition. We now know that the final form of these chapters crystallized during the… Continue reading
For many years discerning scholars have known that there are two creation stories in Genesis and that these two stories come from different sources. This is no radical, liberal, modern idea. For almost as long as the United States has been a nation some people have noticed the Bible begins… Continue reading
I grew up in the Deep South where storytelling was ubiquitous and valued. There were well-known stories almost everyone knew as well as stories unique to individuals and families. As a child I heard both kinds of stories, but the ones I treasure today are the stories about members of… Continue reading
There is a story about a Mexican bank robber named Senor Jorge Rodriguez who lived many decades ago. After robbing a bank in Texas, he slipped across the border into his native Mexico. He was pursued, however, by a Texas Ranger whose motto was, “I always get my man!” The… Continue reading
Never assume children are not listening to what’s being said around them. When I was a little boy I remember a story told by a visiting preacher during his hour-long sermon. That story haunted me for years. The preacher told of a missionary family who went to evangelize a tribal… Continue reading
In some ways the Whistle Stop Café became church for people who would not have been comfortable or welcomed in the traditional churches in that community. Continue reading
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.—That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the… Continue reading
