The Little Friar

Mark Nauroth's new book, Power of the Creed: These Ancient Truths Will Change You and Your World is a deep, yet accessible guide into the baptismal pool that is early Christian faith -- and the difference that faith makes in our own world. Nauroth has been able, in just 200 pages, to skim church history for a narrative that helps Christians understand who we are -- and Whose we are. The difference in that narrative is absolutely essential in a world only too willing to tell Christians those things. And in a world where Christians don't know how to distinguish the difference between what we believe and the power that has to shape how we are in the world, the creed is not simply a set of philosophical or theological precepts. It's a powerful statement that shapes how we see God's interaction with the world and with us. In short, the creed, for Nauroth, is a spiritual statement of trust.  That's what makes Nauroth's Power of the Creed so refreshing.  And a mus...

Elizabeth Rankin Geitz's Spiritual Truth in the Age of Fake News sets the record straight on what the Bible really says regarding sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, and heterosexism.  "Fake News" about the Bible can be deadly.  It has and continues to destroy lives.  Geitz cites examples of violence from the resurgence of many "-isms" -- sexism, racism, heterosexism, anti-Semitism -- that many people support with misinterpretations of the Bible.  "It is time to set the record straight on what the Bible actually says regarding the many 'isms' alive and well today", she writes.  "It is time for the Fake News about the Bible to come to a screeching halt.  It is time for us to claim our inheritance of spiritual truth for all people." In this concise, and compelling book, that's precisely what Geitz does.  Understanding that divine images are foundational to our worldview, Geitz begins her book by countering the Fake News that the B...

Radical violence in the United States -- particularly connected to the institutionalized racism that takes place in a variety of ways (not simply with law enforcement, but certainly most visibly with law enforcement) -- has reached epidemic levels.  Our social fabric is entirely frayed, and there seems to be no real way forward. There have been, of course, certain very localized attempts to solve this racism.  For example:  But those localized efforts lack the larger vision necessary to develop a collective accounting of racism and its effects on our various social and cultural institutions. This is why so much white guilt continues unaddressed.  Younger generations, when confronted by the realities of that racism, then demand that we remove statues, ban flags, change names of military installations, etc.  Those generations don't realize that those actions really don't address the white guilt over racism and its historical constructs.  So what do we do? On ...

As I write, riots are sweeping through several American cities.  While rioting and looting are always inexcusable, they are perfectly understandable.  Those who decry the violence must first acknowledge the violence of the racist system of law-enforcement in the US.  The Brazilian educator Paolo Freire, in his seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), pointed out that "Never in history has violence been initiated by the oppressed.  How could they be the initiators, if they themselves are the result of violence?  There would be no oppressed had there been no prior situation of violence to establish their subjugation." But he went on, in that same work, to caution:  "When people are already dehumanized, due to the oppression they suffer, the process of their liberation must not employ the methods of dehumanization." Institutional racism and police brutality against colored people long pre-date Trump, though the latter has emboldened white s...

Yohan Hwang's Reclaiming Our Political Roots:  Rethinking Church in Nationalist Times is one of the clearest calls for the Church in America to wake up -- wake up from the nightmare of trying to provide therapy or social belonging in a culture all too enthralled with both.  Reclaiming Our Political Roots is nothing less than a clarion call for the Church in America to be the Church -- "a true community ... where its members have political and economic commitments to each other". I have little doubt that this book will infuriate all sorts of folks.  But as a church leader himself, Hwang has a handle on what this change might mean.  Hwang details how the Church has fulfilled this role at various points in history and how we can learn from the past.  In a culture where Christians have become so engrossed in maintaining the status quo for American culture through political power, Hwang envisions what the Kingdom of God envisions:  An alternative to worl...

Rob Ryerse's Running for Our Lives: A Story of Faith, Politics, and the Common Good was a book I had to read.  An evangelical pastor and progressive Republican, Robb Ryerse has ran for Congress, worked with the Vote Common Good campaign, and helped foster some of the most important relationships across the current American ideological divide in politics.  So this is a book I simply had to read.  I expected to be challenged -- and I was, and I found myself changing my mind on some political issues of our day. What I didn't expect was to become hopeful. I'm a firm believer in the wall of separation between American politics and Christian faith.  The state shouldn't be telling the Church how to live and worship and the Church shouldn't be telling the body politic how it should live and what it should do.  I believe these things precisely because I follow Jesus Christ, not in spite of him.  What I didn't expect was to find myself challenged -- and chan...

God came to me, rebuked me for my life of sin and showed to me a way in which we both could win; I heard his offer out, but in the summit of my pride I chose to win alone.  God I crucified. I hanged him on the tree, and on the tree he died. But God does not just die; he must rise to live again, and soon returns, rebuking me for my life of sin. Frustrated with his returning, that he does not simply die, I choose myself again, and him I crucify. I hang him on the tree again; on the tree he dies. He returns and comes again, each time so vital, bold, that I can only crucify by growing yet more cold. Where our ending finds us is where we did begin; we either taste of glory's grace or we crucify with sin. Each time we hang him on the tree; again on the tree he dies. Finally, though, my will submits because his grace is so true. That will now crucified with him; on the tree we die. My life now found in God with Christ alone, crucified and dead, I'm raised to li...

                   Kill me not ev'ry day, Thou Lord of life, since thy one death for me         Is more than all my deaths can be,                     Though I in broken pay Die over each hour of Methusalem's stay.                     If all men's tears were let Into one common sewer, sea, and brine;          What were they all, compar'd to thine?                    Wherein if they were set, They would discolour thy most bloody sweat.                      Thou art my grief alone, Thou Lord conceal it not: and as thou art          All my delight, so all my smart:                     Thy cross took up in one, By way of...

John Goodrich and Mark Strauss have edited one of the most important collections of essays about discipleship in the New Testament:  Following Jesus Christ: The New Testament Message of Discipleship for Today .  Bringing together 21 contributors, this volume of around 350 pages and 20 essays provides a clear, thorough biblical picture of the nature of discipleship to Jesus Christ in the world.  17 of the chapters explore the message of discipleship in each of the major New Testament writers/books, and it is written for pastors, seminary students and advanced college classes in mind. The material here is comprehensive, but in an accessible way.  Not one of the chapters is overwhelming, but each is as complete as one might expect from a scholarly work such as this.  For example, readers will encounter some occasional discussions about the Greek text, but not in a way that makes the work inaccessible to lay readers.  I only wish Part 2 -- "Discipleship T...

Several clergy friends have asked for a resource they can use to gather their congregations (at least online) to pray.  I've put together an ecumenical daily prayer liturgy in response.  Congregations (or individuals) are free to use it.  The two hymns in the liturgy have music that are linked to existing YouTube videos; that way, everyone can sing together, too!  These are strange times -- but the Church continues to do what it has always done in obedience to the God who continues to do what God has always done.

Thomas More and Timothy Sprankle's Philippians:  A Commentary for Biblical Preaching and Teaching brings together the exegetical, theological and homiletical purposes of the text under one easy to use biblical commentary.  Each section of a chosen pericope within the Philippian letter deals with these three themes in succession.  For example, on Philippians 2.5-11 (the well-known kenotic Christological hymn), the exegetical idea is how Christ modeled a servant.  The theological focus is humility.  And, finally, the preaching idea is to climb down the ladder of privilege to reflect the attitude of Christ.  After the three areas of focus, the commentary, in the summary section, lists "Preaching Pointers" that give the preacher/teacher ideas about what they should drive home when delivering the text. This commentary contains all the usual information about the biblical book early in the commentary -- an outline, authorship, date of writing, location...

the wholeness of good possessed as a whole the completion of powers inherent in you at splendid things true joy of the soul triumph at being your self pure and true well-reasoned choosing of the natural thing viewing the order of all things in all to be like a circle or unending ring in all choice and thought to hear virtue's call achievement of life that is smooth in its flow that which makes nature finished in kind the good to will and the true to know being the divine that in us we find

the heart is the only eye that can see this thousand eon bonfire whose sparks are our galaxies once, long ago, I saw its light in a tea lamp there was no one in the church its small flame made a long hall of the darkness guiding no one it searched became a tongue licked the tinder

For twenty-five years, on most mornings, I sit down, open my prayer book and commit the day to God. Sometimes this simple act of piety provides a framework for the day.  Saying Morning Prayer is not simply an act of piety that is part of my Order's Rule , it's an act that connects me to the wider world and reminds me of the catholicity of the Church.  As I pray, the liturgy helps me to appreciate that I'm part of a body transcending space and time:  The Holy Spirit somehow incorporates me, as well as countless others, into the body of the risen Jesus, and in this way we all are involved in God's oversight of the world.  I'm coming to believe that saying Morning Prayer verges on the profound -- not because I'm saying it, but because God has given it as a gift to be said. But sometimes -- many times, if I'm being honest -- saying Morning Prayer is simply nothing more than me vocalizing words on a page as my mind wanders.  Today, for example, I read Psalm...

It may seem odd to most, but Ash Wednesday has always been one of the most important days of the church year to my spirituality.  Lent provided me time to stop and reflect -- intentionally to pray about my own sin (usually busy-ness) and ponder the meaninglessness of my own work.  Without the Spirit, pastoral work simply doesn't make sense and isn't possible over the long term. So it's probably not a surprise that Ash Wednesday is one of the liturgical acts I miss most.  Ash Wednesday was such a formative experience on my pastoral ministry, precisely because of its intimacy.  I recall, as a grad student, ministering ashes to one of my profs.  That pastoral act was a humbling, intimate experience that shaped me in ways I never realized at the time. And its therefore one of the pastoral acts I most miss. I was reflecting this year on that, and wrote the following poem.

I first read Matthew Vines' God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case for Same-Sex Relationships soon after it was published in 2015.  I was excited to read it, in light of the 2012 video that had made its rounds on social media from the author on some of the same themes. Like I said, I was excited to read the book.  I had huge hopes that he would do for a new generation what Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? had done in 1977 -- offer a clear evangelical voice to the discussion about the nature of human relationships from an evangelical perspective. In the end, however, I was let down.  I had hoped that Vines would give us a far more compelling theological foundation.  He didn't.  Instead, he absolutized his experience as the theological argument in support of "same-sex relationships".  In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have been too surprised of the let-down.  I've come to realize that so long as Christians have a sexual ethic that merely a...

I've been reflecting on the accusation often made against the Christian universalism to which I hold (and which I've laid out in several books, beginning with The Fire and the Rose ).  After all, what could possibly be more liberal -- more accepting and politically correct -- than insisting that there's no such thing as eternal punishment in the fires of hell and everlasting salvation for every person, ever? To be sure, there are squishy, politically correct visions of universalism, the belief that we're all on different religious paths journeying up the same mountain.  That liberal notion that "All roads lead to God". But this universalism -- I'm going to call it mine just for simplicity's sake -- is not one of those.  I've come to call it a confessional ( or evangelical) universalism .  In my vision, Jesus Christ really is the Lord of History.  Jesus is the Door, and the only door, through which the sheep can enter the sheepfold.  Ther...

From the Hoosoyo (Prayer of Forgiveness) of the Maronite liturgy for the First Weekday Cycle of Lent (and thus celebrated on Ash Monday and, when liturgies are celebrated on Ash Wednesday in Maronite Churches, for Ash Wednesday as well): O Christ, Lover of all people, you gave the Church the holy season of Lent as a shield of protection and a healing remedy.  Your fasting and sacrifices taught us to fast, and to understand the purpose and essence of life, the meaning of the world and its existence, and the greatness of your love and compassion.  Shower your mercy on all people that they may repent, and soften their hearts that they may return to you, know you, and love you.

I have never really given much of my own ink spilled for thoughts about Karl Barth's alleged affair or John Howard Yoder's sexual abuse , but both of those realities have tainted how I read the theologians' very important work.  I've never sworn off use of Church Dogmatics or The Politics of Jesus , but I do believe serious questions have to be asked and answered by theologians who use the work of Barth or Yoder often and with any ethical commitments to the Gospel. To be honest, that's probably because I never confronted their sin of the abuse of power and sex in any real way. But the report that surfaced over the weekend about John Vanier's sexual sin have had me caught in the grips of grief -- and to be honest, existential questioning -- since comments first arose Saturday.  Vanier, I (like so many others) now believe, initiated sexual relations with at least six (non-disabled) women, usually in the context of spiritual friendship/direction as a pastora...

The autumn leaves are falling brown and dusty on the road, the winter chill is beating like a hammer on the brain, the sun perhaps forever-lost is hiding, veiled by cloud. A dull and aching boredom rules, worse than any pain, and time -- the word is inexact, but we may call it 'time' -- time is bare, oppressive; it smothers the sublime. We itch to walk and wander, inquire, think, and ponder -- we itch but do not scratch, for where is there to journey when the sameness never ceases (brown below and gray above) and life in bits and pieces knows not peace nor joy nor love? All drained of every color, now fades life and light, and all without reprieve await an all-elusive night. Yet in a little building, quiet, tucked away, a little light of day through dismal day is breaking, a single subtle ray of sunlight bright and pure like water to the thirsty, to the ill a cure: like bread plain and unobtrusive yet of endless grace diffusive, like red wine upon ...