Hello my friends, Given recent events, I wanted to send out this newsletter to you today and reflect on them. On September 30th during his “State of the Force” address, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the creation of the Pentagon's new Office of Religious Affairs. As of the writing of this post, no individual has been publicly named or announced to head this office. According to Hegseth, the office will give military chaplains a "direct line" to him without "staff filters" and...
4 days ago • 6 min read
Hello my friends, Thank you for being here today. Given the several inhumane and shocking events of this last week, I wanted to focus on a question posed in the Bible that I've written on before but doesn't seem to get a lot of attention. It is the question of why evil seems to prosper. My hope in this piece is to not only process the reality of all that is happening and ask this question together, but also to hopefully encourage you to continue forward in hope towards justice. Recommended...
8 days ago • 10 min read
Hello my friends, Today’s gospel from the Lectionary is the parable of the vineyard workers from Matthew 20:1-16. I wrote a newsletter on this parable called “Resting Generosity,” which you can read here. Essentially, it is a parable about those who resent generosity shown to those they believe don’t deserve it. Today, I want to look at the first reading for today, Jonah 3:10-4:11, and how Jonah becomes furious with God’s compassion being shown to people he believes don’t deserve it, and how...
15 days ago • 9 min read
Hello my friends, Today I want to look at a parable from Jesus that has been on my minds a lot lately, as well as that famous phrase of his about forgiving "seventy times seven." There are a few things I want to reflect on today as well as ponder how this reflects our world today. Before we dive in, here are some resources I’d recommend: -Wellness 2.0: When It's All Too Much by Hidden Brain. I found this episode to be incredibly insightful and helpful. It deals with our emotional and mental...
22 days ago • 10 min read
Hello my friends, I posted something recently on social about grief and the stories people shared about their own grief were powerful and moving. If you have time, you can go read them on my Instagram, Facebook, or Substack posts that begin with “It’s hard to name the kind of grief…”. So, today, I want to create a space for you to name your grief, know you are not alone in it, and hopefully feel comforted by that understanding in order to move forward in our work to bring healing to this...
29 days ago • 10 min read
Hello my friends, I hope this finds you well today. Thanks for being here. In our time together, I wanted to reflect on Peter rebuking Jesus in Matthew 16:21-28 when Jesus predicted his death and resurrection and what the "why" behind his rebuke might teach us about American Christianity today. Resources To Consider: -Why don’t Christians look to Jesus as a model for masculinity? I wrote this piece a few years ago as I reflected on the kind of masculinity I inherited and witnessed around me...
about 1 month ago • 10 min read
Hello my friends, I will often focus on a current event and/or the gospel passage from the lectionary here, but for today's newsletter, I just want to reflect on Psalm 46:1-2 with you. I have been pondering this passage a lot lately and so I want to share a recent experience I had this last week that made this passage come to life for me and see if it resonates with your heart. -What Is God Like? by the late Rachel Held Evens. I love reading this book to my children, so I wanted to recommend...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
Hello my friends, Today, I wanted to reflect with you on Matthew 15:21-28, which features a rather unsettling interaction between Jesus and a woman asking him to heal her demon possessed daughter. He doesn't respond like the Jesus we have come to know and love. However, once we dig deeper into this passage, I think we will not only come away with a deeper understanding of the dynamics at play in that first century context, but also how those dynamics are still very much at play in our world...
about 2 months ago • 10 min read
Hello my friends, This week's lectionary passage is from Matthew 14:22-33 where Jesus famously walks on the water while the disciples were caught in a raging storm. Reading it in preparation for today's newsletter, I felt as if it spoke so clearly to our storm today, especially in how the original Greek speaks of the disciple's experience. So, with that, I want to invite you to reflect on this passage with me as we are in the middle of our own storm too. Recommended resources: -Zina Jacque's...
about 2 months ago • 10 min read