Newsletter: "The past we step into and how we repair it...."

What an emotional week! Here at our place, we've gone from the lows of quarantine to the highs of The Hill We Climb. We've grappled with sin and been touched by the dawning light.  We've struggled to understand, and seen our path illuminated by fresh insights. In other words, a typical week along the Way.

"We must end this uncivil war...."

Unity is a precious gift, even when we fearfully embrace it. In our moments of unity, eternity irrupts into the present, teaching our hearts to desire the peace of mutual humility that is our destiny, our home.

During President Biden's inaugural address, his words reminded me of Jesus' poignant prayer for us after the Last Supper. Jesus prayed, "Holy Father, watch over them in your name, the name you gave me, that they will be one just as we are one" (Jn 17:11, CEB). Cynics scoff, but their power pales before Jesus' plea that we will be one. Who are we to accept for ourselves anything less than the gift of unity for which Jesus prayed  in the last hours of his life? Our unity is the means through which we proclaim God's love for all the world (Jn 17:23).

I also appreciated that President Biden called us "to defend the truth and defeat the lies." For Jesus, in that same prayer, prayed the same for us, beseeching the Father to "Make them holy in the truth," and indeed declared that he became holy for us so that we "also would be made holy in the truth" (Jn 17:17-19). We can take the risk of being truthful with each other precisely because Christ has redeemed our past and assured our future so that we are free to manifest Truth in the present. Jesus is the Truth, which makes our commitment to Truth "the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love."

Our holiness, truthfulness, and unity all go together. I am grateful that President Biden called us to hold them together as we strive to end our uncivil war.

A Difficult Conversation

This week, I released the third episode of Conversations: Race on the Rocks. In this episode, entitled King Cotton and the Rise of Plantation Capitalism, Dr. Kate Masur and I have in view our American story from about 1820 until 1860, but we focus more narrowly on how our political topography was transformed by a global economic revolution akin to what we have experienced ourselves in our Digital Revolution. It was a time of great innovation, moral confusion, and tragedy. Owning this part of our history is hard. In faith, we can handle the truth of our story so that we can respond responsibly together. I hope  you will join the conversation and own it with me as we make sense of what we inherited.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and more!

The Art of Blessing

This week, I introduced the second of the seven practices of the Way of Love, "Bless." I call it an art to emphasize that blessing, like music, is irreducible to an algorithm or protocol because it is an creative offering we make right in the moment, for the moment, and its meaning is always of our present moment. For we meet God only in the present. Like our nation, I am not "broken, but simply unfinished," so these musings are confessional, my notes along the Way, an effort to share what I think is true. It will give me great peace if you are blessed by my memories of blessing.

Dialogue with a Skeptic: Doubt, Part I

As the shock recedes, my thoughts have repeatedly veered to the images of Christian symbols hoisted as battle flags during the attack on our national capitol. In the second of my series, Dialogue with a Skeptic, I introduce the concepts of constructive and destructive doubt, and strive to understand how the riotous Christians could perceive their violence as faithful.

Lagniappe Love

Undoubtedly you've seen it everywhere, but I have to share it one more time because I think it is an incredible blessing in the midst of our national pain. I pray all our kids and grandkids memorize and rap Amanda Gorman’s inaugural prayer-poem for us each time we gather as families and friends. I can imagine my kids rapping it now, and each time they do, they will become what they are describing just a little more, and so too would our nation. That’s how the Word heals, and delivers us from ourselves.