For the last 2 days, I have found myself in a court room watching jury selection for a double-murder trial  take place. I was not there for fun. I was part of a group of 75 citizens called in to potentially make up a jury pool for this case. I was one person away from […]

"I believe he [Jesus] says it to all of us: to feed his sheep, his lambs, to be sure, but first to let him feed us - to let him feed us with something of himself. In the sip of wine and crumb of bread. In the dance of sun and water and sky. In […]

My daughter, Hannah, majored in Anthropology and Sociology, with a minor in Islamic Studies ...  She had some amazing professors, and learned so much about the Muslim faith outside of the daily news cycle and the histrionics of the media. In many ways, Muslims and Christians have more in common than we know ... mainly, […]

"Joy is the simplest form of gratitude." (Karl Barth)

What really separates us from God? Is it sin, or something else? I  have been pondering this question lately. Listen to this: "Our misdeeds are not  the real root of the problem. They are just what the tradition called actual sins. There is a much more serious problem, what the tradition called original sin. It […]

Whenever I need to be reminded of the unconditional, unearned grace of God, I read Brennan Manning. Today, this was his gift to me: "My message, unchanged for more than fifty years, is this: God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be. It […]