Category Archives: Spiritual Practice

One Great Temptation

Temptation: I wish I could tell you I knew how the coronavirus is going to play out. I wish I could tell you whether to cancel your vacation. I wish I could tell you when a vaccine was coming. I can’t. No one can.

I can tell you this: now is a time to ask central questions, questions of vocation, of who we are called to be. Now is the time to ask, ‘will we meet this moment? Will we be who God created us to be?'”

The temptation is always to be less. The temptation is to be smaller. The temptation to pay attention only to the needs of my country, my city, my neighborhood, to ask how will this affect me.

Will we face this challenge with our full selves?

Baptism: Comfort and Challenge

I want to thank your rector, Jered Weber-Johnson, for inviting me to come to Minnesota. In January. Your rector is sneaky. He chose a really specific moment to invite me to come preach, the end of June last year. I had just walked the streets of my city, St. Louis, for the hottest, sunniest, muggiestContinue reading “Baptism: Comfort and Challenge”

Pentecost, the Presiding Bishop, and the Royal Wedding: We are an outpost for the Jesus Movement

That is the message of Pentecost friends. God’s Spirit descends that ALL God’s people might hear the good news, that ALL God’s people, the Parthians, the Medes, the Elamites and the residents of Cappadocia, that the Koreans, the Mexicans, the Mexico-Americanos, the descendants of enslaved and free Africans and even the Anglo-Americans might know they are redeemed, they are forgiven, they are loved. People of every tribe and language and people and nation. God’s children of every orientation, and gender expression, and ability, and age, and skin color, and ethnicity, and race. All God’s children, all of them are to know God’s saving, redeeming love.

The Gift of “No.”

Discernment in life often involves not only saying “yes” to God’s call, but saying “no” to all sorts of other potentially fun, enriching, and engaging opportunities. To deeply say yes, sometimes we have to say no.