City Called Heaven

It's not about the statue. It's about how Joe Paterno as a person, how Penn State and the NCAA as institutions, and how we as a society deal with power and its abuse. Look... it's a crappy statue. Joe Paterno was more than this cartoon expressed in bronze. At his best, he stood for excellence on the football field and for the role sports and academics can play in shaping character. But we know that Joe Paterno was less than his best. Choosing his program, his salary, and a coverup at the expense of children raped by his buddy is a character flaw which pretty well overwhelms anything else he did in his job. Behind his statue was the legend "Educator, Coach, Humanitarian." Humanitarian is off the table. It was certainly within his power to protect the vulnerable kids who suffered sexual abuse by his colleague Jerry Sandusky. As an educator, at this point Mr. Paterno serves principally as a lesson for how moral failures have a way of catching up with you. As a coach...

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ... Ephesians 1:1-3 Probably the most prevalent image of God in scripture is of God as Father, a parent who conceives and provides for, who watches and worries over his children. In the New Testament, this fatherhood is creatively reimagined as an adoptive relationship. New members are continually being added to the family, not by birth but by rebirth through faith and in the waters of baptism. In our church, we saw this happen last week with a young woman named Iris, and will see it a few weeks hence with newborn Diego. All because God’s parental vision for us is founded in love. You have seen the way new parents look at their children, beloved and perfect. How much more is ...

I am posting this announcement about a prayer group for people with ongoing concerns related to 9/11. Some friends and I were talking recently... and now it exists. It's an interesting return for me. I founded an online prayer group (WTC-Prayer@yahoogroups.com) immediately after 9/11, which ran its course and ended in 2002. A decade later, people still live with 9/11 and continue to feel the need for prayer. ANNOUNCEMENT: New 9/11 Prayer group Please share and repost facebook.com/groups/911prayer 911prayer.org Like so many others, we have been affected by 9/11, our experiences of that day and its aftermath, and the many wonderful people we have met. People move on, and people still struggle with the effects of 9/11. As our community moves through life, we can remember each other in prayer. Prayer connects us to a higher power, and prayer also connects us to one another. This 9/11 Prayer group is for people involved in the events of 9/11 to share prayer and requests for prayer. The ...

When we are low, O God, send your spirit to set us on our feet, open our lips and our hearts, and make us able to do your work. We thank you for the grace you give us each day: &nbsp&nbsp for breeze and cool water in the heat, &nbsp&nbsp for companions to care for and to care for us, &nbsp&nbsp for teachers and preachers and prophets to make your word known. Grant that we may be faithful stewards of your gifts, and profligate scatterers of your grace, through Jesus Christ our savior and Lord. Amen. Photo: Sugar Hollow Reservoir , 1949. Part of the Dunn-Bing collection.

Lord over all, protector of widows and orphans, guardian of the weak, vindicator of the wronged and oppressed: nurture in your people a hunger for justice, raise up defenders and doers of righteous deeds, and make a way to peace. Watch over all who sit in judgment, especially in our courts, that they may rule with equity. And may your name be forever blessed for your saving grace, in Jesus Christ our redeemer. Amen. Artwork : Käthe Kollwitz, Widows and Orphans , (1919)

Afraid to stand naked before you, we cover up with fig leaves of pretence and deceit. Yet you, O God, stand ready to clothe us with righteousness, with wedding garments knit from truth, lovingkindness, faithfulness. Grant that we may be unashamed to be clothed by Christ, freed, justified, renewed, and ready for that great feast of justice which is your will for the children of Adam and Eve, in Jesus' name. Amen.

I just received news that Walter Wink, one of our greatest theologians and scholars, died peacefully last Thursday at his beloved home in the Berkshire Mountains. My thoughts and prayers go out to June, his wife and partner. Walter Wink had an immense influence on me personally, and on those who study and/or follow Jesus in this age. We justly laud him as a scholar. His declaration of the bankruptcy of historical criticism was timely and correct - especially in his formulation which did not reject the method, but the way it had become disconnected from the living life of faith. He helped pioneer the formal use of psychological criticism as a legitimate way of reading Biblical texts. And his work on the Powers not only helped make Biblical language and worldviews more available to the modern reader, but sounded a clarion call for the Bible's role in confronting and redeeming the systemic powers which dominate and oppress. If his books were all he gave us, it would be a rich fe...