We need not fear, as friends, looking upon each other in holy, spiritual friendship. We do not need to fear to see and be seen by our friends. We walk side-by-side as pilgrims on the way in pursuit of the face of God (Psalm 27:8). But along the way, we can stop to recline and find rest in each other’s bosom, delighting in the love of our friends as they delight in ours.
Jesus Loves Me, This I Know
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. These are some of the first words I ever learned to sing in Sunday School, some of the first words I remember ever learning. Jesus loves me, this I know. My calling to celibacy is not me holding on, white-knuckled, to a faint hope that God might take notice of me if I act heroically enough. No, it is the submission of trusting love that is elicited from me by the love of Another, by the love of God in Christ.
Spiritual Friendship Pre-Conference at Revoice 2019
Evangelicals and Culture
Unsurprisingly, I often find myself in conversations with evangelicals over my use of the word “gay” to describe my sexuality. The concern is that by using this term I am not fully rooting my "identity" in Christ, or that I am going to be tempted to sin, or that through me and others like me …
Holy Saturday, Celibacy, and Sabbath Rest
Like the farmer who lets the field lay fallow and refrains from sowing seed, celibacy brings to bear up on the life of the Church the witness of the rest of the seventh day, of the seventh year, of the seven Sabbaths of years. It speaks prophetically to the Church Militant of the Church Suffering and Expectant.
Love To the End — A Maundy Thursday Sermon
He loved them to the end, bending down in humiliation before them to wash their feet. He loves them—and you and me—to the end, bending down in humiliation and death into the very heart of the earth—his blood shed to cleanse and wash away the sin of the world, his body given and broken that we would be healed and made whole.
There and Here
A year ago, there, The sanctuary hallowed and barren. Ash Wednesday, ‘Repent and die.’ The sackcloth and the ashes. Nothing but dust. A year ago, here, A refuge of another kind. Valentine’s Day, love and sex. The drunk old man next to me Told me everything. The woman onstage — Tall and shy and awkward. …
Gentle He Came, Gentle He Went
Do not go gentle into that good night, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Yet gentle he came, gentle he went, Born of the virgin meek and mild. Do not go gentle into that good night, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Yet gentle he preached, ‘Blessed, blessed, Blessed be the …
Bear Patiently the Cross
I have recently picked up again Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose. I started reading it a few years ago after a friend gave it to me when I moved to the Hudson Valley of New York. It tells the story of Susan Burling Ward who, upon marrying her husband Oliver, leaves behind her home, family, …
Statement on Separation of Families at the Border
The U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, the Department of Homeland Security, along with administration officials at the White House, have recently acknowledged the implementation of a new “zero tolerance” policy for families arriving at the U.S./Mexico border. This policy is being used by the current administration to separate families. We declare that this policy separating …
Continue reading "Statement on Separation of Families at the Border"
