Holding Beauty in My Soul’s Arms is a book for many on the journey toward deeper spiritual formation. It offers a resting place where we may pause and savor the riches of scripture, tradition, and reason as well as postmodern psychology, ethics, cultural studies and systems theory…

It is commonly assumed that Jesus had 12 male disciples, the number being fashioned after the 12 tribes of Israel. Whether or not there were 12 tribes named after 12 men is a question for next week. The question for today is: did Jesus have women disciples, and who were they?

As suggested by the title, the book takes a progressive approach to religion, seeing the critical biblical analysis of the past 200 years and the discoveries of science as friends rather than enemies in the ongoing quest for truth.

I’ve been introducing scripture passages this way from the pulpit for decades.  At first I was a bit nervous about speaking my mind in such an unambiguous fashion.  But when I discovered that hardly any parishioners blinked, I lost my trepidation. 

Jesus saw him in his lostness – alone in that tree. He looked past all the judgements and self-imposed values the people of Jericho were heaping on Zaccheus and he saw him as a lost human being, fully deserving of love. And in that he saw that Zaccheus, just as each one of us, possessed uncommon value.

So much of popular religion is simply a collection of ancient superstitions and old campfire stories. Even Pope Francis has told the Church that God is not a “wizard,” and we need to stop thinking that God is a magical being.

Sermon at Peace of Christ Church, September 9, 2018 – “God as She: Why it Matters” – Rev. Aurelia Davila Pratt

Would an all loving God lead us into temptation? If not, why does the Lord’s Prayer ask our Heavenly Father not to lead us into temptation?

Within the emerging world of Progressive Christianity this book seeks to present the Bible, God, and Jesus in ways and language that are believable.

April 21, 2019 – “Resurrection Sunday: Everything Rises”

Dr. Joerg Rieger sits with Debo, David and Ann to delve into the differences between “malignant religion” and “life-giving religion.” What is the relationship Jesus had with materialism and to what extent is preaching the good news to the poor life-giving versus malignant?

Benedictine monk John Main has reminded me of something I first learned reading one of Gore Vidal’s historical novels. Reading to oneself became a thing only in recent centuries. “The spoken word is the essential medium for the communication of the gospel.”

Just as the term “believer” means very different things to those who use it, so do to does the word “atheist” include a wide set of definitions.

I think these kind of stories are like haikus or koans that are meant to shake us up with paradox and make us realize and/or remember that words are very limiting and they cannot convey the multidimensional complex reality we live in.

The Peoples’ Bible highlights the role of cultures in shaping the Bible and the way people read the Bible today. Relying on the best insights of historical-critical, liberationist, postmodern, and postcolonial interpretation the contributors include the editors of the volume plus Kosuke Koyama, Randall C. Bailey, Fernando
F. Segovia, Elsa Tamez, Clarice Martin, Hee An Choi, Gale A. Yee, Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, and many more.

I’ve always heard that Jesus’ ministry was three years long. Now I hear that it was only one year. How does something like that change?

Innovative songwriter and worship leader, John Lyzenga, is pleased to announce the release of IN TROUBLED TIMES, a collection of worship songs addressing issues of social justice including racism, privilege, gender, sexuality, and immigration combining the story of the Bible alongside current events.

Jesus you’ve got to be kidding! “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and even life itself, cannot be my disciple?…None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions?”