For most of my life I read the Beatitudes as instruction, a mild if not righteous scolding. What if, instead of new commandments for people to follow, the Beatitudes are a description of the people Jesus sees...
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What to you makes a satisfactory life? The apostle John writes of an incident soon after Jesus had risen from the dead that is very telling. Jesus had just prophesied Peter’s death by crucifixion. Peter, in...
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Growing up on a farm, one of my jobs was to carry water to the chickens. I thought I was working hard. I carried water maybe 30 feet, sometimes making two trips so the bucket wouldn’t be too heavy. The water...
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In a circle of East African Anabaptist leaders this spring, comments flew with dizzying rapidity. We talked about forgiveness, reconciliation and repentance. We struggled with authority and control and how to...
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Independence Day, July 4, will be celebrated soon. There’ll be parades lined with politicians seeking your support. Families will gather to watch fireworks. The U.S flag will be on display. Little attention...
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Captive is a coming-of-age novel about friendship and self-discovery in the context of war, pacifism and the little-known story of German prisoners of war in the United States during World War II. About...
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What does it take to believe? Perhaps it is a body. The writer of the letter to Colossae is filled with longing. “I am struggling for you”; “I am with you in spirit.” His letter pours forth with the...
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Just four miles from Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, I pause among ruins of a Muslim cemetery next to a hill where historians say Jesus may have found employment as a youth. On this hill stood the ancient city...
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Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society’s recent research expanded the pool of groups included under the Anabaptist umbrella. The Community of Christ has moved toward declaring itself a peace church....
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What do you do if the nearest worshiping community to your church is a Sikh gurdwara? Plant a garden together, of course. That’s what River East Church, a Mennonite Brethren congregation in Winnipeg, Man.,...
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When I heard my Amish grandparents’ farmhouse was being razed because of black mold, and a new house would be built, I knew change was coming to a place that seemed timeless. I spent summer vacation there,...
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By the mid-19th century, North American Mennonites and Amish had barely crossed the Mississippi River, venturing west only as far as southeastern Iowa. That changed with the discovery of gold in California in...
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After being released overseas last year, Mary Magdalene made it to U.S. theaters in early April and began streaming this month on Amazon. Directed by Garth Davis (who also directed Lion, one of my favorite...
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The going was slow, but I was meditating on how fit I felt compared to when I started biking again the week before. Some sort of whooshing commotion blew up on my left. Before I knew what it was, I heard...
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The number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border has risen sharply in recent months. Previously the majority apprehended at our southern border were single adults seeking work. Now, more than 60...
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This winter, as I read Karen González’s excellent new book on immigration, troubling news continued to unfold about events at the United States’ southern border. Governmental policy, fueled by xenophobic...
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“Take, this is my body”: These words are the crux of contention, the source of division for any hope of a shared communion practice in the universal church. What did Jesus mean? Did the bread become his...
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I confess, at times I judge people by their hats. We don’t need hats to tell us our society and our churches are plagued with divisions. Divisions are nothing new. They are as old as tribes, as old as us and...
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When I started reading Fire by Night, I expected the usual Old Testament topics: gore, war and law, with the author’s new insights. Or, might it be a book-by-book review from an Anabaptist perspective....
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Some people think global warming is a hoax. Scientific evidence shows it is real. A November report by scientists from 13 federal agencies concluded we are headed toward disastrous climate change that we may...
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Last fall I grafted a half dozen varieties of apples onto my apple tree. I’m a poor and inexperienced grafter, so not surprisingly only a couple of them took. I discovered one in the spring — a stout...
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Recently I was in Sarasota, Fla., due to the forces of what church historian Phyllis Tickle describes as the church’s every-500-year rummage sale. Tickle’s words in her book The Great Emergence have...
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In a bare, block-walled room I see them: young mothers. Their faces hang in that state of half-life between breath and desire, hungry. “Do you have any children?” I ask them. “How many?” “How old are...
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Two kilometers west of Capernaum, a stream of warm water swirls around my feet and spills into the Sea of Galilee. This is Tabgha (“Seven Springs”), where a lush oasis covers the shoreline. Warm water...
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Like other Canadians, every year Ernie and Charlotte Wiens file their taxes. Unlike others, the LaSalle, Man., farming couple doesn’t send the federal government everything it says they owe — the part that...
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