News - November 2014 RSS Feed

This is the season of final exams. Not only at Seattle University, where I teach, but also at the other “SU,” Satanic University, where young demons are facing their teachers for the final examination. In one class, Temptations 101, Professor Screwtape had three students.

Have you ever noticed how so much of the gospel is concerned with money? When Jesus describes God’s kingdom, he often uses images of coins, inheritances, paying back debtors, buying fine pearls and settling financial accounts in order to make a point. Today’s gospel tells us that “to everyone who has, more will be given and they will grow rich.”

There is no denying that we live in the most rapidly changing society that the world has ever known. Each day the morning news seems to bring yet another small revolution. Just about everything seems up for grabs: the status of life at either the beginning or the end often hangs in the balance; neighborhoods that have treasured landmarks for years are quickly replaced by high-rise complexes.

A psychologist recently wrote in the New York Times: “Death is an insult; the stupidest, ugliest thing that can happen to a human being.”  In its bald brevity the sentence is startling.  The instinctive Christian reaction is to deny it outright.  But the longer I look at it, the more tempered is my reaction.  That sentence has forced me to face up to a profound question: What does it mean for a human being to die?

A few years ago I participated in a wildly intensive two-week summer seminar at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., on the Book of Revelation.  Team-taught by professors in preaching, worship, storytelling, and theater, we began each day in the chapel.  Sitting in a circle, we started with Morning Prayer and then spent the next hour going around the c

A few years ago I participated in a wildly intensive two-week summer seminar at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., on the Book of Revelation. Team-taught by professors in preaching, worship, storytelling, and theater, we began each day in the chapel.