#love commandment

In this week’s gospel, Jesus commands his followers to love one another. Which is totally on brand for Jesus—and we love to hear it. What we don’t love as much is thinking about what that really means. Or why it is that Jesus needs to remind us to love. We get that we need reminding, of course. But perhaps we are less inclined to realize that this makes it our true priority. When we get…

The hardest part about being required to love is not the obligation itself. It’s that we insist on judging each other’s attempts. Episode 25 of the Make Saints podcast: “Commanded to Love” the episode script Each of us understands that we’re supposed to love people. It’s a thing we’re supposed to do. Love is good. We ascribe high moral character to love. And we recognize that the generous…

Some Thoughts On Decline

There’s a consistency to our talk of decline. What to blame. How to fix it. Talk and action. Still missing the point. Einstein’s analysis of the world revealed a truth we refuse to accept. Everything in nature is growing or declining. We do accept this, in a sense. But only by half. We understand growth and decline, but we continue to also demand there bestasis: that sense that things are the…

The thing about love is that we act as if it’s optional. Like we have a choice. Jesus doesn’t actually give us the choice. For SundayFifth Sunday of Easter Collect Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life;…

When asked “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus’s famous response isn’t just about loving God and neighbor. It says our love depends on it.

When Jesus is asked to name the greatest commandment, he doesn’t skip a beat.

Love God.

But how he responds to this question is truly remarkable.

There’s nothing remarkable in the concept or its theological foundation. The first commandment was…

Why we know to love, but not how or when. We often think of love as the antidote to chaos, but it isn’t so related to the chaos.

Proper 25A  |  Matthew 22:34-46

This year, we gathered at the river for Convention. Down in Jeffersonville and New Albany, just across the Ohio River from Louisville, we convened for the first time with our new Bishop. We were welcomed, celebrated, danced, and made…

My parents were going out on a date and I was old enough to be left home without a babysitter. Just not old enough to make good decisions.

I was asking them about going to a friend’s house (he’s moving the next day! I pleaded. I won’t see him again!) They weren’t going to be home anyway, so what’s the big deal?

The big deal is that they said no. They wanted me to be at home. They were going away.