Our Place at the Table
March 20, 2026
Let’s imagine ourselves into the story and join this strange cast of characters sitting around Jesus’ table. Which of these characters do you relate to most? … More Our Place at the Table
Category: Jesus
Drinking the Kool-Aid
January 21, 2026
I reject dismissively labeling a fellow Christian as “woke” or “brainwashed by mainstream media” or a “lefty” just because they may critique the Right or fall left of center on certain issues. Why? Because many like me have come to hold their views by virtue of being a faithful Bible-believing, Evangelical Protestant upholding the conservative value of standing on the ancient text and testing (and often changing!) one’s views in light of the teachings of Jesus. … More Drinking the Kool-Aid
Remaining Calm in the Societal Storm
January 16, 2026
Jesus was no stranger to bad weather. Once he criticized a first century weather forecaster, saying: “You can predict the weather, but not the signs of the times” (Matt 16:3). It doesn’t take a spiritual sage to read the signs of our times. A societal storm is raging and one scene in the Gospels seems to resonate with what we’re feeling. … More Remaining Calm in the Societal Storm
No More Mr. ICE Guy
January 7, 2026
Nothing can provoke anger quicker than mercy, when it’s directed to the wrong kind of people.
Marking the church’s Year of Jubilee, Pope Leo XIV invoked biblical language calling for kindness to migrants as human beings made in the image of God. There’s nothing the least bit controversial about this. It’s what the Bible says, what Christians have always believed, what official Catholic teaching makes explicit. Some people didn’t like this. … More No More Mr. ICE Guy
The Way of Jesus is Still Narrow
September 16, 2025
Jesus called out predatory religion, disrupted economies of exploitation, named rulers’ threats without flinching, and still refused the sword. Loving our enemies never meant moral equivalence, but refusing to mirror their violence while committing to standing between them and the people they crush. … More The Way of Jesus is Still Narrow
Do we Mourn … or Just Rage?
September 10, 2025
It’s easy to look at the brokenness in our nation and just feel angry. Angry at “those people,” angry at leaders, angry at the way things are. We live in a culture addicted to outrage. Outrage mobilizes. It raises money. It fills cable news time slots.
But Jesus doesn’t say “Blessed are those who rage.” He says “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” … More Do we Mourn … or Just Rage?
The Victory of the Cross
August 13, 2025
Our church recently completed a 12-week exploration of “The Cruciform Kingdom,” focusing on the essence of Christ-like love, non-violence, and peacemaking. Jesse P. Nickel’s “A Revolutionary Jesus” highlights Jesus’ role as a peacemaker, emphasizing the significance of the cross in understanding his victory over evil through non-violent means. … More The Victory of the Cross
A Revolutionary Jesus
April 14, 2025
This Sunday we will be shocked once again with the yearly reminder that, given the choice between the peaceful and non-violent revolutionary prophet Jesus bar Joseph or the patriotic freedom-fighting violent revolutionary Jesus bar Abbas, otherwise known as Barabbas, the crowd chose Barabbas over Jesus. We’re still doing it today. My teacher, Scot McKnight, introduces a new book on Jesus and non-violent peacemaking on his Substack today. … More A Revolutionary Jesus
What’s Really Blowin’ in the Wind?
February 26, 2025
Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” poses profound questions about humanity’s struggles such as war and oppression. Its refrain suggests that answers are elusive—perhaps nearby or forever outside our grasp. I have begun to sing this song in a more redemptive key lately. At my Bob Dylan show this week, after the last note on the harmonica faded into applause, asked if perhaps Jesus told us the answer that is blowing in the wind. … More What’s Really Blowin’ in the Wind?
Mocking or Marveling at the Cross?
February 22, 2024
The Gospel reading for this week gets to the heart of everything. This is it. Choose the scandalous Way of the Cross and be a disciple of Jesus, or keep stamping Jesus’ name on the Ways of the World and be Satan’s sucker. There’s no neutral ground beneath the cross: you’re either mocking or marveling. … More Mocking or Marveling at the Cross?
When God’s Glory Appeared & Wept
January 3, 2024
The Jewish Messianic hope was often contaminated by a nationalist fervor that had God’s people thinking the Messiah was coming to take the country back for God from the unbelieving Gentiles in power, and bring swift judgment on the less zealous and insufficiently patriotic religious compromisers. … More When God’s Glory Appeared & Wept
Laid Bare, Yet Lavishly Loved
July 10, 2023
Peter stands naked in the boat, both for practical fishing purposes and to symbolize a man laid completely bare before God-in-Christ. Instead of hiding his shameful nakedness, he wraps himself in a garment of grace, plunges himself into the waters of forgiveness, and swims into the arms of his loving friend. … More Laid Bare, Yet Lavishly Loved
Jesus As LifeCoach
September 13, 2022
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and puts it into practice is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.” Matthew 7:24 Dallas Willard wrote relentlessly urging Christians to place real, rugged apprenticeship to Jesus back at the center of Christian faith and the church’s task. The problem, Willard says, is that “The … More Jesus As LifeCoach
Why Compassion Is Divisive (David French)
May 2, 2022
In the age of cancel culture, mercy makes enemies. David French explores why compassion can be so divisive in Jesus’ day and ours. … More Why Compassion Is Divisive (David French)
Fight Like Jesus During Holy Week
April 9, 2022
Throughout Holy Week, two competing approaches to peacemaking collide. Jason asks, “What if we’ve embraced the wrong one?” Here’s a great conversation to usher you into Holy Week. … More Fight Like Jesus During Holy Week
A Table for Misfits and Ragamuffins
April 4, 2022
Let’s imagine ourselves into the story and join this strange cast of characters sitting around Jesus’ table. Which of these characters do you relate to most? … More A Table for Misfits and Ragamuffins
Weeping With King Jesus Over Ukraine
February 25, 2022
Have you noticed worldly kings rarely weep (in public)? Not so with our King of Kings. Today Jesus weeps over the war in Ukraine. … More Weeping With King Jesus Over Ukraine
Viral Jesus For an Infected Church
February 11, 2022
I saw an ad today inviting leaders, content creators, and influencers to learn how to make their faith go viral. What if we instead focus on helping Jesus’ faith and ethics go viral? … More Viral Jesus For an Infected Church
Jesus-Centered?
January 26, 2022
Here’s a peace by Kurt Willems on a topic that I’m passionate about. What does it mean to be a Jesus-centered church? What are the alternatives? … More Jesus-Centered?
Chosen 3 – Pitching a Tent in Our Backyard
October 6, 2021
Jesus doesn’t usually impose himself on us, but prefers to kindle a small fire in the background of our lives and consciousness. He prefers to strike a small match — a passing thought, a brilliant sunset, an inner yearning — and waits for us to start fanning the flame together. … More Chosen 3 – Pitching a Tent in Our Backyard
The Chosen: The Sermon Goes Visual this Fall
September 14, 2021
What happens when the words about Jesus in the Bible leap off the page and become “living and active” among us? We have a fresh encounter with the real Jesus. This has happened to me this summer, and for millions of viewers around the world through the TV series The Chosen. … More The Chosen: The Sermon Goes Visual this Fall
“You Had Just ONE Job!”
June 17, 2021
I love the Geico commercial where a guy who is putting down chalk lines on a baseball field starts daydreaming that he’s swerving through the mountains on his motorcycle singing, “Build Me Up Butter Cup.” He snaps out of it to find curvy chalk lines all over the baseball field. He asks, “Do you think anyone will notice?” … More “You Had Just ONE Job!”
This is the Way (Skye Jethani)
March 5, 2021
Dominionism, and the Christian nationalism it has spawned, are antithetical to the cross. It is a false gospel and those who preach it have their minds set on the things of man (fear, power, and control) and not the things of God (faith, hope, and love). … More This is the Way (Skye Jethani)
Truth is a Slippery Thing
January 18, 2021
In the midst of all the “alternative facts” and “fake news” and outrageous conspiracy theories being proffered, I wanted to cut through all the crap and simplify things for those who claim to follow Jesus. … More Truth is a Slippery Thing
Blessed are the Poor Shepherds
November 20, 2020
Ebenezer Scrooge had a hard time grasping and embracing the spirit and message of Christmas. The rich and self-sufficient always do. Their own personal kingdoms loom so large that they have a hard time making room for God’s Kingdom—and all the poor and lowly riff-raff to whom it belongs. … More Blessed are the Poor Shepherds
Kingdom Harbor 