Let me see your hands: Who forms Christian community?

Let me see your hands.  I am checking for splinters, proof of cross- carrying. Let me see your hands.  I am looking for blood under your nails, proof of crucifixion. Let me see your hands.  I am feeling for callouses, clues that that you have done the hard work of building the kingdom of God. No […]

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Didn’t you promise?

“Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye.”  Our promises use to mean something.  As children, we took our commitment– no matter how trivial or time- sensitive– seriously.  We meant what we said with our little mouths about a rumor we had heard or the score of last night’s game.  […]

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Hello, Koinonia Farm!

 Interesting title, huh?  Well, I have a bit of good news to share.  I learned this past week that my grant proposal for the Louisville Institute’s Pastoral Study Project was accepted.  Woo- hoo! What does this mean?  It’s means that I am going to Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia!  I will learn in community the […]

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Sister Joan Chittier on Differences

“Of two possibilities,” my mother loved to tell me, “choose always the third.”  She is a Benedictine nun.  I found the words of Sister Joan Chittier in a collection of writings on community titled Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People.  I have been carrying it around for a couple of months […]

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The doors of the church are open

“The doors of the church are open.”  This reminder needs to scroll below news reports of border walls constructed to protect against the “alien invasion” of our neighbor.  Because there are no illegal human beings, no one smuggled from the mind of God to earth and  our humanity requires no paperwork.  Because “the earth is […]

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