It happens by fits and starts, yet unmistakably: in the Bible, mercy and justice draw ever closer to each other. The figure of the crucified Messiah binds them irrevocably as the defining components of God’s love. This Messiah bears the…
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Some sports intensify our awareness of time. Basketball, for instance: games are now measured not in seconds, but in tenths thereof. “Clock management” is a skill set in its own right. Baseball – it’s a cliche, but still true –…
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Modern liberalism holds up broad-mindedness as an ideal. Just now, though, we’re re-learning a perennial lesson, that it’s our particular loyalties to particular people, particular communities and their particular truths that give weight to our words and actions. We can…
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Reflection The Immigrant Apostles’ Creed I believe in Almighty God, who guided the people in exile and in exodus, the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants. I believe in Jesus Christ,…
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“Pushback” is everywhere. Sometimes it’s intentional; more often, it’s just woven into the fabric of the world as it is. The brightest idea, the firmest resolve, the most extensive preparation and the most impressive credentials all meet resistance. Promising pathways…
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The philosopher Stanley Cavell says we need a place separate from ourselves where we can put our suffering. “Stego“, one of the New Testament Greek words often translated “bear”, as in “bear the cross” or “bear up under suffering”, supports…
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Since last September, the Sunday morning Adult Forum group has wrestled with the spiritual progression laid out by St. Paul in the fifth chapter of his Letter to the Romans: “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces…
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We think of prayer as, mostly, asking for what we need and want, for ourselves and others. God sees it differently. God receives prayers of every kind as offering, of self and world. This offering comes, as we say to…
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A few years ago, something that looked a bit like a bird feeder appeared along one of the walkways in the Grace Church garden. It is painted whimsically and stands unobtrusively near one of the benches. Perhaps you’ve peeked in,…
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The prayer that concludes the service of Holy Baptism asks God to give the baptized person, and by extension all of God’s people, “an inquiring and discerning heart.” To inquire is to probe and test, while discernment refers, in the…
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