The Warm Winds of Heaven
Last spring I blogged about a first of its kind gathering of Mennonites and Jews at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) called “Reading the Bible after the Holocaust.” We covered topics ranging from New Testament scholarship, shared historic experience, the dangers of emphasizing common ground in dialogue, Mennonites and the…
Jane at 90
One of my favorite living humans I’ve never met, Jane Goodall, turned 90 this month. She is, perhaps, the matron saint of paying attention. She is most famous for her work among the chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Initially an outsider to the scientific community, without a…
What Holds Us Together?
A while back Joel preached a sermon where he talked about a theory originated by Phyllis Tickle that the Christian Church goes through a great shift or reformation approximately every 500 years. Tickle (and Joel) used the metaphor of the 500-year rummage sale as a way to think about how…
The Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth: Substitution vs. Solidarity
Sub.sti.tu.tion – the action of replacing someone or something with another person or thing. Sol.i.dar.i.ty – union or fellowship arising from common responsibilities and interests. It’s Holy Week, a time dense with memory and meaning. Within this short span, the gospels speak of the betrayal by Judas, Jesus’ final meal…
Wider Church Happenings
Tomorrow morning I’ll be driving up to Goshen for three days of meetings with the Mennonite Church USA Constituency Leaders Council. The CLC is an advisory and listening group – rather than decision-making body — made up of representatives of area conferences and constituency groups. As the President-elect of Central…
Over Half…
What if the majority of the world’s 8 billion people could share in a season of spiritual grounding? What if over half of humanity would focus, all at the same time, on the practices that lead to harmony within oneself and justice in society? Well… The Muslim month of Ramadan…
Midweek Blog: On Enchantment
I recently finished the book Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May. The title jumped out at me because my interests around creativity and spiritual formation leave me intrigued at the idea of “awakening wonder.” What’s more, the term “enchantment” is one way that I think we…
“The Divine Politics of Lament”
The subject line comes from a presentation I heard last Thursday: “Professional Mourners, Grieving Mothers, and the Divine Politics of Lament.” This was part of the annual two-day Schooler Institute at Methodist Theological School in Ohio (MTSO). The speaker was CMCer Dr. Ryan Schellenberg. Some things I’m stilling pondering:…
A Surprise Non-Encounter
Yesterday started with a surprise. As I approached the main entrance of the church, a neighbor across Broadway Place informed me that a gray SUV had just pulled up, shot something at our front door, and driven off. She had reported it to the police. Sure enough, the glass on…
Lent 2024: Encounters On the Way
It’s the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday. I thought it was rare for this to overlap with Valentine’s Day, until Google revealed this happened as recently as 2018 and will happen again in 2029… Our worship theme this Lent is “Encounters On the Way.” We’ll follow Jesus through Mark’s…
