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To dust you will return: the Good Samaritan, Martha, and Lent
Below is the text of Luke 10:25-42, followed by a brief reflection, an edited version of which is a part of my church’s Lenten devotional series. The idea of the series is to connect narrative passages from the book of Luke to Lenten ideas like lament, fasting, sorrow, repentance, and humility, and to reflect on…
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Post-acquittal prayer
A prayer for mercy as the news of Trump’s acquittal in his second impeachment trial sinks in. God, have mercy on everyone who grieves this. Have mercy on everyone who rejoices. Have mercy on everyone who is oblivious. Have mercy on everyone who is numb. Have mercy on everyone who carries disillusionment like weight within…
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Always Reforming: a short sermon on Luke 6:1-16
I’m thankful to have had another opportunity to give a short sermon at my church, Lake Burien Presbyterian Church (aka “Lake B”). If you prefer a video version, here’s the church service. My part starts around 35:14, but David (before) and Miguel (after) are very much worth listening to if you have a few minutes.…
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Thyatira & MLK Day
This is (a fairly literal translation of) the rest of what Jesus has to say to the church in Thyatira ― continuing from last week’s post about Jezebel. Revelation 2:24-29 reads: (24) I say to y’all, to the rest of the ones in Thyatira, as many as do not have this teaching, whoever did not…
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Where is the love?
Continuing in the book of Revelation, in this apocalypse that is 2020… Here’s a pretty literal translation of Revelation 2:1-7: To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write: these things says the one grasping the seven stars in his right hand, who walks around in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: (2) I…
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Marginalized Women, Bold Prophetic Speech: an Advent sermon on Elizabeth & Mary
I guess I’ve thought for a little while now that Luke 1:39-45 is a pretty awesome Bible passage. I wrote about it a little bit last December, in this post, toward the end of “25 Days of John the Baptist.” This is the text (in the NRSV): 39 In those days Mary set out and…
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Beyond Judging Doug: a mini-sermon on the parable of the talents
I had another chance to give an eight minute mini-sermon at (online) church this past Sunday. The text is below if you’re interested, or feel free to watch the video here. My part starts around 39:57. Esther Lee before me (starting around 33:43) and Michael Won after me (starting around 48:44) both have great things…
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Politicians, resistance, and Jesus the all-ruling one
In the earlier days of the pandemic, I decided to translate the book of Revelation from its original Greek. It turned out to go more quickly than my current project, the book of Luke. Revelation’s author, John, tends to use language that is (relatively) simple and straightforward in Greek. So, I’m not sure how many…
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Election Week Blessing
Because I wanted to be cool like Nadia Bolz-Weber (just kidding―I’ll never be as cool as Nadia!) and write some blessings of my own. (Check out Nadia’s beautiful “Blessed are the Agnostics” piece here, if you like. It’s really lovely.) These words are loosely inspired by the beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12), and much less loosely inspired…
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What Does Such a Moment Ask?
What Does Such a Moment Ask? What does such a moment ask of us? Kindness―maybe― but not the kind that cowers in a corner and will not articulate the jarring, rage-inducing, healing, liberating truth. Love―maybe― but not the kind that circles wagons, covers up injustice and provides protection for abusers to continue their abuse. Humanity―maybe―…