The Little Friar

[The early Christians] believed that it was only when you looked hard at Jesus that you understand what the true God is like. That's why the stories about Jesus -- the four Gospels or good-news books -- are quite complicated.  They show Jesus not parachuting down from a great height to dispense solutions to all problems or zapping everything into shape like some kind of Superman, but living in the mess and muddle of a very difficult part of the world at an especially difficult moment in its history and absorbing the pain and the shame of it all within his own life, within his own body.  The Gospels are challenging.  The don't wear their theology on their sleeves.  They ask us to come into the world of the story and find out what it's like to live there.  Answer:  Not very comfortable.  But massively transforming if you let the story wash over you. So let's go back to the first century.  The first followers of Jesus (Paul and many...

Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods:  Rediscovering American on the Appalachian Trail was first released in 1998, and has now been re-released as a tie-in for the upcoming movie.  But make no doubt about it:  This book is an opportunity for anyone, short of actually hiking the Appalachian Trail, to escaping and exploring the mysteries of the American natural landscape. The Appalachian Trail, for those who don't know, stretches some 2,160 miles, from Springer Mountain, in Georgia, to Mount Katahdin, in Maine.  And Bryson meets the challenge with all the enthusiasm and humor that befits his other travel books.  You'll find none of the monotony that plagues so much other travel writing. And his writing is rich in excitement.  In fact, Bryson begins by scaring his readers:  He writes of the trail's perils -- dangerous animals, killing diseases, "loony hillbillies destabilized by gross quantities of impure corn liquor and generations of profoundly unbi...

Sheila Wray Gregoire's Nine Thoughts that Can Change Your Marriage is a refreshingly honest book for Christian women who want to change how they think about themselves, their spouse, and their marriage.  It contains practical wisdom and exercises that challenge the way our culture trains women to think about those things that are biblically-informed and spiritually-mature. So this book is a word of hope amidst all the cultural hopelessness about Christian marriage. But it's more than that. Nine Thoughts that Can Change Your Marriage is also a word of challenge to Christian women.  The changes we can make in our marriages are within our own grasp.  What I love about this book is that it denies the easy, pat answers so many of us hear about marriage as Christians.  Without any spoilers, "Thought #1" alone is worth the price of the book. This very practical book offers fresh insights and biblically-rooted principles for approaching a topic of perennial inte...

For those who might be interested to explore my writing projects to date, here's a list.  Faith Thinking:  A Student's Introduction to Christian Theology Thinking:  A Student's Introduction to Philosophy Life Together:  A Study Guide A Pastor's Reflections:  On Being Church Peace with Justice:  The Biblical & Theological Case for Christian Pacifism Shalom:  The Bible's Story of Salvation Rejoice in the Lord:  A Guided Study of Philippians Jesus Matters:  Exploring Christianity's Basic Convictions (for teens) The Triumph of the Crucified Lamb:  A Theological Commentary on the Book of Revelation Having and Sharing:  A Congregational Study Guide (for stewardship programs) There are some other projects in the works: Flesh and Bones:  Sermons Mission in Christ's Way:  A Study Guide The Form of the Word:  A Congregational Study Guide (for discipleship programs learning to read the Bible with dis...

This is an article that I've written for a Christian magazine on the spiritual practice of listening.  Feedback very welcome.

By all means remove Confederate flags from government buildings to send a message about racism.  It's a start.  Next, send a message about the fusion of faith and nationalism by removing American flags from churches. From An American Bible:  "Jesus said, 'Forgive them, Father!  They don't know what they're doing.'  And the Father replied, 'Screw that, Son.  I'm thinking eternal damnation.  And fire.  Lots of fire.'" (Luke 23:34f.). Do I believe in hell?  Yes.  I know the devil that I am, so I know there's a burning away of all that is my own dross (1 Corinthians 3). According to the BBC, doctors are now warning that skinny jeans can seriously damage muscles and nerves.  A survey of hipster pastors would suggest that the damage may extend to the cerebrum. Why do Christians lose their faith in the face of horrendous personal suffering?  Because they don't look at the world Ivan-eyed before they come to faith an...

Katie Wetherbee and Jolene Philo's Every Child Welcome:  A Ministry Handbook for Including Kids with Special Needs is one of the most important resources for churches and pastors.  It distills information for church leaders and for church ministries with special needs children, by educators who have spent their careers with children with disabilities. Every Child Welcome is filled with extremely practical ideas and strategies for including children with all levels of intellectual, physical, developmental and emotional disability into the environments and activities in which we help them to grow to know and love God. What sets this book apart when compared to other excellent special needs ministry resources is that practical wisdom Wetherbee and Philo share from their years of classroom experience in special education.  They offer a plethora of ideas and strategies for teaching kids with extraordinarily diverse learning styles and ability.  Many books and ...

Homosexuality and same-sex marriage.  Clergy sexual abuse.  The ordination of women.  Christian-Muslim relations.  Science and religion.  Poverty and social exclusion.  Declining church membership.  Hymns or contemporary praise choruses.  Take your choice.  There's no shortage of thorny issues in the Church these days. I couldn't answer even one of them to everyone's satisfaction, so I won't try. What I will say is that one thousand years from now -- in 3015 -- Christians may well think our debates over same-sex marriage and women bishops as arcane and abstract, of no immediate relevance for Christian discipleship in the fourth millennium. This is why I keep pointing to Acts 15 as the way forward for the Church, in the midst of all these thorny issues. When you read Acts 15, as a modern reader, the one question you probably take away from that text (if you take anything) is:  How in the world could they possibly be worried ab...

I'm largely stumped when it comes to plunging the mysteries of faith.   I don't know what it is that enables one person to hold on to faith in the face of doubts where another person eventually walks away.  I don't know why faith stays strong for some and evaporates for others.  And I know of no secret or intervention that can change this outcome for any given person. What keeps me holding onto faith?  I think it is this. For as long as I can remember I've been transfixed by the image of Jesus.  I remember being a young boy and wanting, more than anything, to be like Jesus.  I wanted to be fearless and kind, courageous and caring, strong and gentle, raging and forgiving.  That's the first thing I ever wanted.  And I've never stopped wanting it. That primal desire and memory sits at the foundation of my faith.  And it seems to me now that this is the reason I am able to sustain faith in the face of doubts that cripple so ma...

Pete Wilson's What Keeps You Up at Night:  How to Find Peace while Chasing Your Dreams is a book about learning to trust God, at all times.  None of which is easy.  That's why Wilson spends so much time in this book reviewing the paralyzing doubts, fears, and insecurities that plague our living faithfully and fully.  Taking the next step in faith, living obediently even in the midst of those fears -- that's what this book is all about. And make no doubt about it, Wilson is an excellent guide on that journey.  His storytelling makes this little book all that much easier to read.  This one one of those books that most folks will find themselves highlighting and annotating again and again.  It will also be a book that folks return to again and again. What you find here is anything but a Pollyanna-optimism.  Wilson faces hard truths.  We will have to wait.  There will be uncertainties.  Christians will inevitably face trouble in ...

My friend Pat asked that I offer some theological reflections on "time".  It would be just as easy to point toward Augustine's notable discussion about time and eternity in the latter books of his Confessions .  But I want to develop here some ideas about the nature of time from a Christian perspective. For most of us, shaped as we are by the cultural Enlightenment heritage, time is an a priori -- a given -- and has its own independent, objective reality.  For those of us, time can be quantified in terms of past , present , and future .  And eternity , then, becomes the infinite expansion of the future. For Christians, though, there's the paradox of the Incarnation.  The "end of time", τὰ ἔσχατα , is God's Kingdom.  This Kingdom isn't simply some future goal, but is God's intervention into the world of space and time at particular moments -- most supremely in Jesus Christ.  "In the fullness of time", Paul insists, "God sent h...

Heinrich Arnold's Freedom from Sinful Thoughts is a marvelous little book that moves discussions about sin and its effects in our lives as Christians away from ethical analysis and into the personal, practical search for wholeness.  Whatever our battle with "sinful thoughts" -- whether it's overcoming the addictive power of sin in our lives or simply battling the constant barrage of our culture in framing how we think unhealthily about human thriving -- Arnold's book contains rich pastoral wisdom offered with lots of compassion. A life freed from "sinful thoughts" begins with a controlled mental life.  But we can't fix our our "mental sinfulness".  With a keen understanding of the psychology of habits, Arnold rejects all of the "self-help" and "self-medicating" ways that our culture teaches us might resolve those bad habits.  I particularly found his discussion about the problem of relying on "willpower" h...

I'm always surprised that Bonhoeffer is popular among American Christians. I'm surprised because his theology, his politics and his activism seem to out-of-place for Christians in the United States.  So many different conservatives praise him. Some people laud him for his non-violent pacifism, and other for his violent attempt at activism.  Some laud him for his commitment to community, and others for his religion-less Christianity.  Some laud him for his non-metaphysical theology, and others for his pastoral care.  Some laud him from the far left, and others from the far right. When this happens -- as it inevitably does -- I just look at them and wonder, "Is there something else going on here?" Lots of folks like to think of Bonhoeffer as a hero.  Personally, I view him as a cautionary tale . The forgotten lesson, it seems, is that far too many of us strive to be like Bonhoeffer, instead of being the Church that wouldn't need him. Instead of ...

death hangs off everything like tattered Spanish Moss on ancient, gnarled oak trees and spiderwebs on decaying, rotting things death blows coldly with the plastic trash rolling through empty alleyways like tumbleweeds but on this day the birdsong of dawn seems more real than the abandonment of night and the news of life echoes a hope that the hegemony of loss is cracking under the soft caress of love it is here in the surprise of blue small flowers impossibly splitting the weight of oppressive concrete resurrection in the cracks blooming underneath it all this is the way of the Gospel life, out of death

Peter Mommsen's Homage to a Broken Man:  The Life of J. Heinrich Arnold -- A True Story of Faith, Forgiveness, Sacrifice and Community is another of those spiritual biographies that epitomizes what Paul had in mind of the Corinthians, as living epistles that continue in testimony to Jesus.  As Arnold's grandson, Mommsen brings a unique perspective to appreciate this unusual man, this highly gifted pastor.  It truly is a "homage to a broken man" -- a real human being who was used by God to accomplish kingdom work, even in Arnold's own brokenness. This story has all the marks of a story that witnesses the power of Jesus' Gospel in our world, a story that rings with the authenticity for which our world hungers. Heinrich was the son of Eberhard Arnold, the founder of the Bruderhof Community in Germany following the chaos of the Great War.  The younger Arnold grew up in the context of that Community's radical commitment to the Gospel, in a German context t...

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. God’s Love in Christ Jesus What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifie...

Tim Timberlake's Abandon:  Laying Aside Your Plan for God's Purpose is a book that makes a simple claim for those who follow Jesus:  If we're ready to let it all go, we're in a position to gain from God what God desires for us. Abandon is based on the charismatic wisdom about what it means to believe in Jesus -- "those who would gain the world, must first lose it all".  Using his own life as the pattern for what that looks like in our world, Timberlake shows that no matter who we are, we are given the opportunity to walk into God's plan and purpose for our lives.  Those who would worry less about our lives -- who would dare to let life go, and not hang on white-knuckled -- would find that God desires us to live life to the fullest. Unfortunately, though, the way in which Timberlake largely envisions what that "fullest" might be, he sounds more like the very culture who craves the newest and best just because it's new and better.  Aban...

David Brazzeal's Pray Like a Gourmet:  Creative Ways to Feed Your Soul is so much like a fine meal -- full of new treats and future relishes in the Christian spiritual life of prayer. Brazzeal offers a number of "prayer recipes" from his own experiences.  He describes many simple prayer activities designed to help one break out of his or her prayer-time rut.  Throughout the process, the author encourages the reader to live with gratitude and to take note of the world in which we live.  Not since Richard Foster's Prayer (which Brazzeal often cites) have I read a better book on the various practices of Christian prayer, and Pray Like a Gourmet is filled with so much creativity that I could never do the book the justice it deserves in a review. Brazzeal advocates a number of different ways to practice prayer and meditation such as walking through the park and taking note of the people you see, doing a "museum meditation" at the local museum of art, or a...

This morning, it came to my attention that, to some family, the wearing of my clericals is an embarrassing thing. I admit that in our area, the wearing a clerical collar is an odd thing. It means I'm usually asked two questions: (a) what does that funny shirt mean/stand for/signify? and (b) why wear it? Let me start with the easier question: Why wear it? My current practice is to wear a clerical shirt when I'm exercising the ministry to which I was ordained -- that is, when I'm serving in liturgical or educational ministries (or stand available so to do). In practice, that means I wear black on Sundays and on days that I teach, and other days if I'm leading worship (or exercising my teaching ministry in a non-classroom way). I also wear it when I'm exercising a pastoral ministry in any way in the community -- for example, when we go to funerals. The arguments against wearing them, insofar as I've heard arguments against wearing them, basically cent...