Prefer to listen? Here’s the podcast version of The Talents. Yesterday was the 24th Sunday after Pentecost, and this year the gospel reading was one of my favorite parables: The Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). The author of Matthew uses this parable to portray the End Times, a discussion begun by the disciples’ question “What will be […]
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Reflections on Election Day 2020
I grew up in the anxious period immediately after Sputnik, when, for a moment, and, at least through the eyes of an elementary-school kid in central Texas, education was a serious priority. I seem to recall a zeal in my teachers; they were people on a mission, and we all seemed to sense that the stakes were […]
Continue ReadingThe Poet who saved St. Pancras
The poet whose campaign saved St. Pancras Station was Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984), poet laureate of the United Kingdom from 1972 until his death.
Continue ReadingHow about mayo?
Excelencifying comes in all sorts of forms and activities, and one of my is the quest for the perfect mayonnaise. When I was a grad student at the University of Chicago, I cooked in a restaurant, and one of the duties I relished most was making fresh mayonnaise, 2 or 3 quarts at a time. […]
Continue ReadingPledge Your Allegiance
One of the New Testament readings for this past Sunday, October 18, featured the well-known line “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21) Reading that line in the context of the encounter the author of Matthew narrates, it strikes me that this has […]
Continue ReadingWhat are you worth?
Prefer to listen? Here’s the podcast version of What are you worth? The parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, recounted in Matthew 20:1-16, features a parable about worth. Let me put this bluntly: this parable is an affront to every fair-minded human being. To show you why, let me write you into that story: […]
Continue ReadingWhat if God is serious?
A reflection on Trinity Sunday Trinity Sunday celebrates the triune nature of God, a concept with a long and difficult development in the early Christian community. The idea that God is three persons united in one “being” is tough. There’s no passage in the Bible where God announces, “I am actually three different persons, united […]
Continue ReadingThe Woman at the Well, II
I appreciate the many thoughtful responses to The Woman at the Well, and I appreciate the expressions of concern and even anxiety. All these thoughts and feelings have their place in our society’s current moment of self-examination, and I’d like to respond. I think a good approach is to dig a little deeper. “What was he […]
Continue ReadingThe Woman at the Well
Wednesday, June 17, was the anniversary of the murder of the Emmanuel Nine, and churches across the country remembered the victims and their families and congregations. These moments of reflection on lives lost to hatred are particularly poignant at this historical moment, when many white people are awakening to the legacies of racism in our […]
Continue ReadingGeorge Floyd: A reflection
Friends of Live Your Virtue: This message is for everyone who’s life and actions guide others. In other words, it’s for everyone — but especially for teachers, no matter what form that may take. Like many of you, I found the death of George Floyd in police custody deeply disturbing, and I’ve been struggling with a need to […]
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