• Why Bonhoeffer matters

    I need the reminders of Bonhoeffer’s life. I’ve read The Cost of Discipleship several times. I am grateful for Charles Marsh’s biography on Bonhoeffer to stir my thinking again. The newest Bonhoeffer movie was fraught with land mines because it somehow got associated with a certain biographer who has turned Bonhoeffer into the symbol of… Read more

  • The inconvenience of Advent

    Fleming Rutledge is a gift to my soul. She writes: The season of Advent is like that. Judgment and mercy arrive at the same time. War and peace are announced by the same voice. Read more

  • The way of revolution

    The Second Sunday of Advent was about John the Baptist (as will be the Third Sunday) and I had jotted some notes down about the way of repentance. The way of John the Baptist comes at a critical time in the life of Israel. Rome has been in power and now they’ve encroached on the… Read more

  • Some quick notes from ten books I enjoyed or were impacted by in 2024. This doesn’t have any particular order. Read more

  • Some thoughts from my reading of Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Charles Marsh. There had been some Americans who had tried to get Bonhoeffer out of Germany before it was too late for him personally. They arranged for him to come to New York again and teach at Union Seminary. Read more

  • Advent is about hope. True. It is about holding on in the darkness. True. There is the focus on Jesus coming again, and that has a lot of sentimentality for us in the West. We feel relieved because of all our perceived slights over the years. (The government is coming to get us, silence us,… Read more

  • Random thoughts that entered my mind this week: We honor the prophets… after we have killed them. I want to stop saying why something “won’t work” and start saying, “LET’S TRY.” Read more

  • Life in the dark — Advent

    Advent is to remind us we don’t “live Easter” or “live Resurrection” all the time. We live in resurrection power, yes. But we have darkness to deal with in our lives. Being in the northern hemisphere in Advent is perfect. We need to reflect on the darkness. Read more

  • The Confessing Church in Germany saw the dangers of Nazism encroaching and in 1934, leaders met in the city of Barmen-Wuppertal to put together a declaration that would magnify their Christian convictions and point out areas of dissent. Read more

  • Christ IS coming again

    It is Advent. Over the last few years when I have learned more about Advent, and then joined the Anglican Church, I have a deep love for this season of the Church Year. It takes some practice to get used to Advent. Once you do, though, you will never want it any other way. —… Read more