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Holy Week
We are about to enter Holy Week in the Church. This marks the most powerful week to commemorate in the life of the Church. It is time to follow him into the hardest places to find the deepest power. It it time to sit with him as he looks over the city of Jerusalem and weeps. He know what he…
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The healing and the warning for the white conservative American church
Read Luke 13:10-17 HERE. Jesus is dealing with Israel and their final opportunities for repentance as he heads toward the cross. He is trying to wake them up to their poisonous nationalism and desire for open rebellion against Rome. He is calling one more time for them to wake up, turn around, and head toward God.
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Always reforming… this should be the Church
First, distinguish between deconstruction and reform. The church is a Christ-made institution, but it is also a sinful institution. It always needs reform. If a person’s frustration with the church arises from the biblical vision of community, that’s not deconstruction. It’s calling the church back to the gospel. More HERE. There is a deep work of the Spirit that is…
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Why repentance still matters
We carry an arrogance with us in American Christianity. “I didn’t have slaves, so how am I responsible for this so-called racism?” Or, “Our church doesn’t have abuse problems so why are you saying I need to repent? Repent for what? And then what?”
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Lent needs to deal with our callousness
My Lenten reading has me in Jeremiah. It wasn’t that long ago I was in Jeremiah in my Daily Office readings… It is a constant pummeling, but for good reason.
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The refusal of repentance, pt. 2
The American Church falters and it grows more and more obvious that it does so without a clue. My reading to day was from Jeremiah 8, so I will continue on this theme of refusing to repent because it runs parallel to our own day.
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The refusal of repentance
It’s probably an apocryphal story, but I do love it: According to a popular story that has circulated for a long time, a well known London newspaper in the early part of the twentieth century (usually stated to be The Times) asked the question “What is wrong with the world?” and received many replies. The shortest was from G.K. Chesterton,…
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Before the election…
The longer I live, the more I realize that we simply don’t know who we truly are until we’re tested. We can vocalize our beliefs all day long, but when living those beliefs is hard—when upholding our principles carries a cost—that’s when we learn what we truly value. — David French
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Our grand invitation
Matthew 7:13–14 (NIV)13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. I recently finished up another journey through the Sermon on the Mount and come away…
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Rooting out our deep sin
The deep sin of racism is far more embedded in white American Christianity than we are willing to admit. We struggle in our collective sin mainly because evangelical Christianity (and fundamentalism on the right) focuses on the “individual” sin to the detriment of recognizing community sin. Examples:
Tag: Repentance
