“Karl Barth’s attacks on the liberal theologians and what he regarded as their high humanism has led many to label him as anti-humanistic. Barth, however, never abandoned his presumption that to be a Christian is to be a creature on the way to being a human being. To be sure that way is one determined…
Read More
“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…
Read More
I was a young and naive pastor. In fact I still am. But at the time it was worse than it is now. I decided to dedicate a sermon series to doubt and encouraged the congregation, anonymously, to submit anything they were wrestling with regarding their faith. The idea was to compile the doubts and…
Read More
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…
Read More
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,…
Read More
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…
Read More