Remembering Syria

Remembering Syria

Over the past two days there has been unfolding news of devastation in Syria and Turkey. Early in the morning of February 6, while most were at home sleeping, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the region – followed by a major aftershock 12 hours later. I write these words on the evening of February 7 and there…

A Prayer for Our Times
|

A Prayer for Our Times

O Father God, the Lord of all,the one who sent your sonwho mother-like her people calledto come to her for helpand safety from the comingholocaust of Rome or Hunand later still the Teutonand now the terror wreaked bySlav on brother, sister Slav today. . . peoples, nations, folk,who had no optionbut to choose to sufferas…

A Prayer for Our Times

A Prayer for Our Times

How soon, how soon, / I ask plead beg / Before you enter in once more / to strike the heart of darkness / rampant in our world?

His flag held high
|

His flag held high

In the midst of that chaos, they flew a flag. Jesus Saves. I felt ill to see it. How could that mob – those violent thugs – dare hold high his name? When Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington D.C., attempting a coup at the beginning of January, their Christian nationalism was flagrantly…

To Just Be Heard
|

To Just Be Heard

Being heard, being seen, being witnessed – these are essential to human dignity and survival. In Genesis, an African slave woman stumbles in the desert, pregnant, with nowhere to go. God comes to her. She names him “the God who sees.” In Hosea, the holy city – God’s city – is ravaged. Personified as a woman, the city cries, “Who will be a witness to my affliction?”