This year I heard the readings differently: …there were dwelling in Jerusalem devout Jews from every nation under heaven… The reason the Church started as a multinational multiethnic beloved community is because we were born from a rich and diverse multinational multiethnic Judaism.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because...... Read More

I fell off the reflection writing wagon. Initially, due to my travel and writing schedule. I’m trying to find the rhythm of writing now that the semester is over. Then, like many of my readers, I sat appalled with my hand over my mouth like Job, consumed with grief and rage at the slaughter of...... Read More

Where are the women? The long-standing practice of the Church is to read through Acts during Eastertide to follow the development of the people of the Way into what will become of the Church. Given that the Gospel of Luke and Acts are presented as having been written by the same hand, it is striking...... Read More

It seems like the resurrection generated more questions than it answers. Now what? The old questions are still on the table, will Jesus use his power to restore Israel to a self-governing monarchy? The good news exists in the crucible of Roman occupation. The resurrection has not dispensed with the Romans and their brutality and...... Read More

During the 50 days of Easter, the story would’ve spread like wildfire. And not everyone would’ve told it the same way. Someone would have told a story of one formerly outcast woman going to the tomb by herself, determined to complete the burial rites and then if necessary, to carry his body away all by...... Read More

I will use this single post and update it daily.  Monday: Aftermath Wasn’t that something? Everyone was there. Well, everyone who was anyone. We were all there. We who follow Jesus. There were a whole lot of folk around us looking at us like we had lost our minds. But some of them joined in...... Read More

Walking the Way: What is this strange thing that we do, walking around our churches and neighborhoods, waving palms from trees that are not native to where we are waiving them (for most of us), accompanied by choirs, the rare few with young acolytes on the backs of donkeys? Is it a living gospel? Is...... Read More

Gentle Followers, I am behind and off-track. My calendar is a wilderness of commitments.  I wanted to leave you a world for the next nine months: Marytide. In the midst of the Lenten season as we prepare to walk the way of Calvary, a way of suffering and death, we are also walking the way...... Read More

The theme of the fourth Sunday of Lent is often lighter than the other Sundays, traditionally focusing on joy and rejoicing while the other Sundays may focus heavily on repentance. Here the theme is the joy of love. The first lesson focuses on the love of a woman for her beloved, the psalm, the faithful...... Read More

Self-examination is one of the pillars of Lent that I find to be often overlooked. Today’s lessons provide an opportunity to examine ourselves and our stories, the stories our ancestors told about themselves and that we continue to tell about ourselves. The stories about the genesis of humanity also allow us to reflect on the...... Read More