The Prophet Amos Makes An Appointment at the Tennessee Governor’s Mansion

Amos 5:18-24 You say that you love the Day of the Lord. You expect the people of Tennessee to pray their way out of a virus on the day of the Lord. So much so that you would wave to the crowd into a parking lot prayer meeting, and count it as a win--or did …

My 2020 Endorsement

So John Piper isn't going to vote in the 2020 Presidential Election, and he has a whole bloated theological argument for why he's not. That's cute. Personally, I prefer Stan Hauerwas's much more nuanced approach to the question of freedom and coercion in voting and whether or not voting is an end in itself. He …

200,000

The things that can't possibly come true, do. When the news hit her inbox, her only prayer was not fit to print. A swear word and a Hail Mary. What’s the difference, anyway? Blessed mother to the motherless, blessed breath for those choking for one, blessed Moses parting the crowds on a street full of …

Table Talk: The Menu

A Sermon for September 15, 2019 As our church continues its conversation about what it means to be Open and Affirming, I remembered this sermon from about a year ago on what it means to talk about the church as an "open table." This sermon was partially inspired by the Hee-Haw skit "Hey Grandpa, What's …

For Emily Dickinson In The Midst of a Global Pandemic

Ms. Dickinson, I do not know what possessed you in those days-- You closed the door upon yourself Yet your self still found a way. Isolated, you wrote of death-- an old familiar friend You named the gift that is the grief-- Your words garments to rend. Ms. Dickinson, what did you choose-- contemplation? quarantine? …

On Race and Confession

My teenage, college, and graduate school years were in the 1990s and early 2000s. I read a lot about race, and culture in that time. I heard the term “structural racism” for the first time when I was 16 years old while counseling kids of incarcerated women at camp. I interned at a South African …

My Counterfeit Bill

I’ve been thinking about my own counterfeit bill. I was living in Kenya and traveled to Tanzania to meet a friend for a week of adventure. I exchanged Kenyan shillings for Tanzanian shillings at the border. The exchange agent had an official badge. The rate was as good as the bureaus in Nairobi. I had …

Questions for Governor Bill Lee

Governor Lee’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives released its guidance for gathering in houses of worship on Friday. It has raised several questions for me. You can read the guidelines here. Here is what interests me about this document: The citing of the TN Religious Freedom Protection Act. If my cursory research is correct, …

Ode To a Bad Pop Song (That I Really Like)

So yeah, the idea that you could inject--somewhere between the Camper Van Beethoven deep track and the socially conscious reggae cover, or right after The Beatles tune before the super ironic ear-shattering William Shatner cover--a song that described the art of what your listener was experiencing at that very moment was very cool.

Here’s The Thing: Thoughts on the Metro Tabernacle Lawsuit

News broke today of a local church suing the City of Chattanooga for banning drive-in services. As you might imagine, I have some thoughts. Here’s the thing about Sheltering at Home and Social Distancing: there’s nothing magic about gatherings of ten people or fewer. It simply reduces the risk of spread. It doesn’t stop it. …