After four years of living within shouting distance of the ocean, I moved back to the prairie in the upper Midwest. The great expanses of sea and grasslands bring distinct images...

Each of us faces fear, and rarely do we know long periods of time without suffering. These experiences are parts of the human condition that come as surely as the changing...

Following John Lewis’s death in 2020, commentators cited often his urging to get into “good trouble.” Good trouble put him in harm’s way often as he worked to end segregation and...

Our church has been involved in a movement of anti-racist churches in Lansing, Michigan. As the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning, and following the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George...

When we think of heaven, we usually think of some place in the sky. But in John’s vision, heaven is a new city. I love this image. We can easily imagine...

Let’s stay with the story of the Ascension one more day. Why? Because Luke does. He ends the Gospel of Luke with the story of the Ascension, and then tells the...

Today we celebrate Jesus’ passing the baton of his mission to his disciples, the church. It’s a period of transition that reminds me of the first week of July in the...

I grew up in a conservative evangelical church in the holiness tradition, and I have a deep appreciation for this tradition’s emphasis on personal holiness and evangelism. The key questions were...

Yesterday we read about how salvation disturbs unjust economic systems. Today the story continues, and we learn that salvation also disrupts unjust power dynamics. Paul and Silas are thrown in jail....

In our story today, Paul and Silas encounter an enslaved girl who has a “spirit of divination” that is making her owners a lot of money. The spirit in her would...