“Holy Week invites us into a world full of betrayal, abandonment, violence, and ultimately death,” writes Christine Valters Paintner in her blog this week. Today we begin walking into a time full of pain and grief and sorrow. Or, to be more exact, making sacred space for wrestling with pain and...

This is one of those stories that end up in children’s bibles and Sunday school lessons all the time because the visual images are so vivid.  In order to see Jesus, Zacchaeus has to climb a tree.  He was that eager and determined to see Jesus as he really was. Jesus seems equally determined to see...

Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Give water to the thirsty. Welcome strangers. Visit prisoners. Assist the ill. Church tradition sometimes refers to these actions as works of mercy.  When we expend ourselves, our time, our resources in acts such as these we’re demonstrating divine grace, care,...