The writer Anthony de Mello offers a simple story: A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself with a large crop of dandelions.  He tried every method he knew to get rid of them.  Still, they plagued him.  Finally he wrote to the Department of Agriculture.  He enumerated all the things he...

Jesus, it turns out, was probably an embarrassment to his family.  They’ve heard that Jesus “has gone out of his mind,” so they have come to “restrain him,” according to earlier information in Mark.  Perhaps the family has been listening to folks like the Pharisees who speculate that Jesus is...

One of the places I lived in Chicago was near a vacant lot where men began gathering around 6 a.m. every day, waiting for someone to come by and hire them.  I saw them while I rode a bus to my own job.  There were often a few persistent stragglers there at the end of the day.  Maybe they had no...