a prison sermon on the "good" Samaritan
Maybe, just maybe this parable has more to it than the Samaritan was good so we should be good in order to inherit eternal life. Because if anyone was saved in this story it was not the one who managed to do the right thing. The one who was actually saved in this parable was the one who couldn’t manage to do ANYTHING because he was half dead in a ditch.
I’m not sure why we can be so idealistic about human love when human love is profoundly imperfect and so often unreliable.
O come, O come Wisdom from on high – Send your wisdom and cast aside the myopic stupidity that comes from thinking only of ourselves, only of our own species, only of our own wellbeing, only of our own country, only of our own religion, only of our own historical moment.
on AI, religion, and
What I am saying is that if we are not looking at the whole reality of being human, the good the bad and the embarrassing, then we simply will not have the wisdom to know how to make use of, them in, or regulate AI.
At church inside the women’s prison last Sunday, Pastor Samm raised her hands after communion and said, receive this blessing. Immediately a roar of feedback from the mics and monitors behind her angrily filled the room.
but, like in a good way
The one thing that enraged most people about Jesus of Nazareth was that he had the gall to tell people that their sins were forgiven when clearly there were systems of civic and religious power that were set up to make sure people got what they deserved.
We look happy. And we are. But when a friend called this morning and was like, “great photos of you and Eric this weekend!” and all I could think was, you have no idea what shit-show this week has been for me.
a short sermon for inside a *women's prison
I’ve been convinced that the Sermon on the Mount is all about Jesus’ lavish blessing of the people around him on that hillside who his world—like ours—didn’t seem to have much time for: people in pain, people who work for peace instead of profit, people who exercise mercy instead of vengeance.
But not in that passive-aggressive "well, bless their heart" kind of way.
We had our Synod Assembly yearly meeting with the bishop of all clergy and lay leaders and I am aware of how exhausted the clergy are right now. (And I am sure… all other helping professions.) So here is a blessing for my colleagues.
A sermon on simple faith in shitty times
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor (bathos) the deep, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Herod, who is a ruler on a throne of power, and Joseph who is a peasant in an unconventional marriage. One man is powerful and one man is not. And yet the text only describes one of these men as being afraid.
A friend of mine, who grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation, told me that his people’s practice is to not speak the name of the dead for a year. Only after twelve months of their name remaining unsaid are the rituals for gathering loved ones and telling stories undertaken.
Who gets to receive the goods?
House for All Sinners & Saints was only about a year old when I took a Sunday morning phone call from a
On AA, Lazarus, and Our Emotional Bodyguards
How do we allow for who we are now and allow for who others are as well. How do we remember to show the curiosity toward our friends that we need for others to show toward us. How do we not treat others as if they are the same, when of course they are not?
I’ve always assumed that the grief Mary Magdalen expresses at Jesus’ tomb had a particularity to it. We know that he had cast seven demons out of her and that she supported his ministry out of her own purse. I do not know what it is like to be a woman 2,000 years ago who was the village demoniac, but I cannot imagine it was a pleasure.
A Sermon on Forgiveness
The following sermon was given for my siblings at Montview Presbyterian Church, one of the three local worshipping communities I am affiliated with here in Denver. (The other two being St John’s Episcopal Cathedral and New Beginnings, a Lutheran church that meets within the walls of the Women’s Prison.
Forget the selfies and social media updates of everyone at their best, three-time New York Times best-selling author Nadia Bolz-Weber’s new podcast, The Confessional, invites guests to share stories about times they were at their worst. Guests talk honestly about what led to that moment, what they learned from it, and how they changed as a result. A former stand-up comic and a recovering alcoholic, Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran Pastor and the founder of House for All Sinners and Saints, in Denver, Colorado.
Negative messages about sex come from all corners of society: from the church, from the media, from our own families. As a
Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber on how she experienced a divine intervention that changed her view of God from being one she feared to one that symbolizes grace.
White lies can cover your ass, but, warns Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, they start to cover up the real you, too
And this is it. This is the life we get here on earth. We get to give away what we receive. We get to believe in each other. We get to forgive and be forgiven. We get to love imperfectly. And we never know what effect it will have for years to come. And all of it…all of it is completely worth it.
I need a God who is bigger and more nimble and mysterious than what I could understand and contrive. Otherwise it can feel like I am worshipping nothing more than my own ability to understand the divine.
God's grace is not defined as God being forgiving to us even though we sin. Grace is when God is a source of wholeness, which makes up for my failings. My failings hurt me and others and even the planet, and God's grace to me is that my brokenness is not the final word ... it's that God makes beautiful things out of even my own shit.
Now a New York Times bestseller, Nadia Bolz-Weber takes no prisoners as she reclaims the term "pastrix"(pronounced "pas-triks," a term used by some Christians who refuse to recognize female pastors) in her messy, beautiful, prayer-and-profanity laden narrative about an unconventional life of faith.