One of the treasures that E.O. Wilson bestowed on his undergraduates was the concept of the umwelt. Umwelt: the world as a particular animal experiences it. On a sensory level – visual acuity, hearing, smell – and the semiotics of what sensory stimuli signify in the instinctual context forged by genetics and learning. As one…
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“We’re living on borrowed time.” The church I serve is like most churches in the United States in that we have an aging infrastructure that requires more maintenance and repairs each year. The HVAC system we have was designed for a usage period of 50 years. We are in year 60. We are truly living…
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We find ourselves in the midst of the adventure of war. It began as soon as the turkey carcass was picked clean and turned into broth many turned away from the Thanksgiving table and towards the bright lights of Christmas. Water dripped from the plates now resting in the drying rack as many found themselves…
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In 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, wrote a story called “Christmas” wherein the main character gripes, “Christmas is coming in a fortnight, and I have got to think up presents for everybody! Dear me, it’s so tedious and wasteful!” To which, her Aunt responds, “…when I was a girl presents did…
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Waiting is a dirty word, at least to the ears of most Christians (in America). After all, we are a people of action. We are not comfortable to sit idly by while something could be taken care of. In the world of United Methodism, this is inherently part of our DNA as John Wesley is…
Read MoreStanley Hauerwas writes in his collection, Without Apology, that Advent is a season in which Christians play at waiting. That is, Advent is a time when we pretend to be waiting, recapitulating Israel’s exilic longing as our own. Despite the readings from the prophets, the purple sentinel-like candles, and the melancholy minor key hymns, Christians,…
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Since her “Let it be with me according to your word” makes Mary not only the mother of Jesus but Christ’s first disciple, I often wonder if Mary was among the riff-raff gathered to hear her boy’s sermon on the mount. Clearly, she had to have been present for some of his teaching and preaching,…
Read MoreJohn Garland is the pastor of San Antonio Mennonite Fellowship in downtown San Antonio. In a recent essay in Christianity Today, Garland describes Semillas (Spanish for “seeds”), which is his church’s ministry to refugees who’ve made the long and dangerous journey across the border. Their exodus from Central America can take as long as a…
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“Get dressed in something nice,” my mother said through my bedroom door, “We’re going to church.” Somewhere, I’m sure, a needle scratched clear off a record. Save for a Holy Roman shotgun wedding, where even elementary-aged me could sense the bride and groom were about to make a terrible decision, I’d never gone to church…
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Back by popular demand (okay, Teer’s Mom asked us to do it again), the Crackers and Grape Juice Advent Devotional Series for 2019 will take the writing and preaching of Stanley Hauerwas as our inspiration. Jason, Teer, Taylor, Johanna, and anyone else we’ve managed to wrangle will help you anticipate the coming again of the…
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