“Advent is a time the church has given us in the hope we can learn to wait. To learn to wait is to learn how to recognize we are creatures of time. Time is a gift and a threat. Time is a gift and a threat because we are bodily creatures. Continue reading Creatures of Time (Series on “Minding the Web”)→
Last night I was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of my copy of The Word is Near You: Seeds of the Reformation. The book is a collection of sermons edited by Peter Robinson that were preached in the chapel at Wycliffe College last year to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. I was honoured by the invitation to preach as part of the series and am now delighted to see my sermon on Matthew 28: 16-20 in print alongside other sermons from the distinguished faculty at Wycliffe. The book is available through Amazon in both paperback and Kindle. Continue reading The Word is Near You→
“I have called attention to the kind of authority Jesus and Paul enact as a way to suggest that there may be some tension between the political order that is the church and that form of social and political organization called democracy. I need not tell you this is the day Americans elect their president and a host of other offices. We will be told this is the day the people rule. That sounds like a good idea, but you need to remember that there was a democratic moment in the Gospels, and the people asked for Barabbas. Continue reading A Timely Word for Christ the King Sunday (Series on “Minding the Web”)→
“Humility, of course, is a tricky virtue. Have you ever known of anyone who successfully tried to be humble? Humility is usually something that happens to us, rather than something we do. I was once having a conversation with a friend in Ireland about sexual misconduct by priests. I asked him if the acknowledgment of this crime as sin might teach the church humility. He thought for a short time and then said, “Possibly, because there is no humility without humiliation.” The tax collector was humiliated, which made him an appropriate witness to the one alone worthy of worship.” Continue reading No Humility without Humiliation (Series on “Minding the Web”)→
