Journal

Why didn’t the early Quakers celebrate Christmas?

In 1656, two otherwise obscure Friends, Margaret Killam and Barbara Patison, addressed a “Warning from the Lord to the Teachers and People” of the city of Plymouth, England. The Lord apparently found much to fault in Plymouth, and Killam and Patison asked some pointed questions. Among them were these:

The Best Kind of Broken

When the telephone rings at a certain late hour, you know it won’t be happy news. Anxiety and dread paralyze you with fear, even as you feel compelled to reach for the phone at superhuman speed.

Water Flowing Underground

The urban environment of the San Francisco Bay region is unlike any that I’ve ever lived in, in that while it has plenty of pollution and concrete and population density, it is yet very close to some of the most beautiful natural areas in Northern California.

1st Week of Advent: Surprised by God

This Sunday’s lectionary texts surprise us with a vision of peace that breaks in, disrupting business as usual. Isaiah’s rousing vision of nations streaming to God’s mountain is jolting with its graphic images of the ways in which the ancient war machine will be decisively overcome. God’s enactment of justice will catch us unawares.

2nd Week of Advent: No Longer Enemies

This Sunday’s lectionary texts present the familiar vision of the peaceable kingdom: a place of harmonious coexistence of those who might seem like “natural” enemies. This is the place where God perfectly enacts just rewards and punishments, perfect winnowing. We get a taste of this Reign of God as we live in harmony with one another.

Introduction to Advent Devotional 2016

During this time of Advent preparation for the birth of Jesus, I offer you a message of hope. This is a hope embodied in the spirit and will of all those who refuse to submit to the forces of oppression, violence and injustice, to the structures of domination, colonialism and foreign occupation. This is a hope embodied in truth-telling — in a Truth that is eternal.