Blog Archive
Contemplating the messiness of Christian life
The Messy Jesus Business Blog is an ecumenical Christian gathering of musings about what it means to live the Gospel today. A variety of contributors offer prayer, poetry, book reviews, creative nonfiction and prose about what it means to live a life of faith in our complex, modern times.
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In Its Time
“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Eccl 3:11) I am sorry to disappoint everyone but this beautiful passage, spoken ages ago, passing the test of time to get here today, was written just for me. I am sure of it. For the past few years, I’ve been a student of journeys. I’ve walked
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Where has all the fervor gone?
Happy Easter!! It’s time for joyous, bright, colorful feasts and celebrations. (Whoa, did you hear the news that we have two new Pope Saints?! Hooray!) I especially love the Easter season for the Biblical readings that we pray with. We get to hear many of the inspiring stories from the earliest days of Christianity, when it
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The sower and the dirt
Sitting on the porch, I watch a robin alight on our lawn, a hopeful sign of spring. She pecks in the newly turned dirt and nibbles a seed. My mind rages. “Hey! That’s my grass seed we just planted! What do you think you’re doing?” Big muddy bare spots dot our lawn now that the
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Holy Week Soundtrack
During this sacred week there are certain songs that, without fail, end up on repeat in my head. Perhaps you’re interested, as the music could enrich your Holy Week too. Palm Sunday “Hosana” from Jesus Christ Superstar Holy Thursday “Stay With Me” by the Taize community Good Friday “Were You There (When They Crucified My
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Blessed by our brokenness
We’re all broken. Broken by our pain and suffering, broken by injustice, broken by the Truth. The activities of Lent help me encounter my brokenness. Or, more like, confront my brokenness. I am tuned into social injustices in a great volume. In particular, I am praying and thinking about poverty and hunger a lot due
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Lent is my restart button
Some days, I feel like I just want a restart button. At times, I even feel this way about my life. And then, when I look at all the problems in the world, aware of how complicated and messy the issues of injustice really are, I frequently feel the same way. I just want to
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The conundrum of kids at church
One of my Facebook friends recently posted a rant about mothers who show up late to and leave early from Mass. He stated that he has more respect for people who don’t bother coming at all: “Either be all in or all out.” Others chimed in with “Amens” and further complaints about the entertainment and
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Ashy Remembering
Black falls off my fingers. A dark coat of Truth covers me, my hands, all dirty. I am Too messy for this: the sacred Marking of penitents processing. Skin rubs skin, black in between Ash smeared upon holy, oily faces. The stream keeps moving. I am like a rock slowing the flow with redirecting, grounding. I proclaim:
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Street violence and holy darkness
This past Monday one of my former students was shot and killed on the streets of Chicago. Advent is a time of darkness. Sometimes it is obvious to us that there’s a such thing as holy darkness. And, sometimes the darkness is so cold and heavy that it seems to swallow our hope. During Advent we
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Craving a countercultural Christmas
My Christmas Every Day experiment is starting to get awkward. Advent hasn’t even started yet, but Christmas’ crazed and over-weight relative Consumerism is already in town, on the news, and wasting your gasoline and money as he drives all around town shopping. Meanwhile, I’m crowding with others in the cozy chapel, savoring peace and quiet and adoring God’s
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Jesus and the Mommy Wars
I am a conscientious objector to the Mommy Wars. If you’ve never heard of the Mommy Wars, then you (mercifully) missed last year’s media frenzy surrounding a Time magazine cover that featured a mom breastfeeding her four-year-old son. The accompanying article, provocatively titled “Are You Mom Enough?,” spawned a vitriolic nation-wide debate that was sadly emblematic
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Power, politics and Pope Francis
It’s St. Francis day and we have a Pope Francis! Thanks be to God, Pope Francis is really using his time in leadership to make big changes and redefine roles. Basically Pope Francis is doing a great job of honoring his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi. This is really good news for Franciscans like me who
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