Third Sunday in Lent (Year C, RCL)

While struggling with this question as a church songwriter, I came up with six guidelines.

In my 15 years as a pastor, I’ve seen a lot of watery eyes at the table.

I relate to the servant in Jesus' parable.

Jesus obliterates our internal ledgers and points us to repentance.

These three stances toward God are the beginning of faith.

Amid pandemic and protest, will we turn to each other and live?

Jesus’ parables ought to alarm us, draw us short.

Are we the gardener? Or the fig tree?

The No More Deaths volunteers were imitating the logic of the incarnation.

Isaiah 55 gives voice to the longing we can't quite name.

I can’t fathom a God who isn’t personal—and personally accountable.

One of the few fairnesses of life is the fact that each of us is given an equal 168 hours per week. That is where equality in so many ways ends. From that point on our privileges or lack thereof, and the resources they bring, define what we can do with that time.

We don’t talk about idolatry much anymore, despite the caution against it in everything from the Ten Commandments to the New Testament epistles. This is ironic, because idolatry flourishes in our culture.

Years ago, at a denominational gathering, I heard a visitor from the global South say the following about North American Christians:

They have so many things. They don’t need anything. Yet it seemed like the people were very thirsty, like they were in a desert and we were bringing them drops of water.

These words refuse to leave me.

How can Paul navigate the choppy waters of a pagan environment, with its idols and temples? The obvious place to start is the Shema.