I love St. Augustine of Hippo. That might not seem like a big deal, but since at least the time of John H. Yoder, Augustine has been on the outs with the Anabaptist world, seen as the author of all that was...
[read more]President Trump’s recent action using tear gas on citizens so that he could have a picture of himself holding a Bible (“Scripture Sacrilege,” Editorial, June 15) was a classic example of God vs. empire....
[read more]As dozens of cities burned across the United States June 1, the president needed a distraction. Donald Trump put down his twittering device, left his bunker and ordered police and military forces to use rubber...
[read more]Amid the recent events surrounding the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, the latest fatal violence against African Americans, Mennonite Church USA joins in mourning and lament. We lament that...
[read more]
I realized, my first Sunday morning volunteering at the Rusk County Jail, how very unfair my life has been. My sister and I sat across from two women in bright orange suits, locked with them into a small room...
[read more]
It’s all my own fault — my own fault; and yet I’m not guilty! — Stiva Oblonsky, Anna Karenina There is a well-worn trope in TV shows and movies when former lovers, old friends or estranged family...
[read more]The Apostle Paul’s admonition to the church at Ephesus to “redeem the time” has always been good advice. But rarely has the reason — “because the days are evil” — felt more relevant. When times...
[read more]
During this time of pandemic, many people are worried. They see the hoarding and long lines in grocery stores and wonder if we are in danger of falling apart as a society. Yet there are also stories of hope;...
[read more]
A Mennonite bishop once pointed out to me there was an area where Jesus didn’t send his disciples. In Acts 1:8, when Jesus told his disciples they would be his witnesses “in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and...
[read more]
Why do Christians have such difficulty reaching agreement? The answer may lie in the very nature of God and the gospel. Our challenge is to embrace a God of mystery who is also relational and trustworthy. This...
[read more]
This column is a combined effort by my fiance and me, written before our wedding on Nov. 23. Ivan: I like to read; therefore I get a few book catalogs. One day I noticed an ad for a new book, Anything But...
[read more]
“I don’t want to call God an idiot or anything,” I told Ivan, “but if I had created the world, I would have done things differently.” Someone I love made a choice that hurt me, and that is why I said...
[read more]
When the lawyer finally got face time with Jesus, he poured out what was heaviest on his heart, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He groped for a guarantee. He wanted a divine will and...
[read more]
In Ruth 3, a young widow heads to the threshing floor. If you were an ancient reader of this story, if you heard it recited by your friends around a campfire, if you listened to it whispered to you by the...
[read more]The bride’s grandparents led the wedding procession. The two grandmothers walked down the center aisle; a grandson pushed the grandfather’s wheelchair. The attendants were next, followed by the groom and...
[read more]
I recently started watching NCIS, a television drama now in its 16th season. In the series, a team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigate crimes involving the U.S. Navy and...
[read more]
The 4th century theologian Jerome tells a story about the Apostle John. John was old and frail, unable to walk, so his disciples would carry him into the gathering of believers on the Lord’s Day. Every week...
[read more]
Anyone who knows me or sees me, knows me as that activist human who is very political. In the fall I finished an internship at the Indiana Democratic Party that I had since the beginning of June. I have loved...
[read more]
Oct. 2 was the one year anniversary of Edith in Sanctuary in our Columbus Mennonite Church building. The press continues to tell her story sympathetically, like THIS article in The Guardian, and THIS one in...
[read more]
I wake up with a dark hole of emptiness eating through my chest, and it takes me a second to realize why. My little girl is gone. The child that I loved from the minute I set eyes on her is gone. I still...
[read more]
I love the paradoxes of God: “God is love,” the Bible states, but it also says, “God is holy.” God is portrayed as both the vulnerable lamb and the wrathful lion. He is king and servant, Alpha and...
[read more]
“More to the right!” “No, go left!” “From where I stand it looks like you just need to center it.” We are on a youth-group service trip. The shouting isn’t about politics. It is about locating...
[read more]
These texts from Paul provide an excellent coda to our conversations about ethics, justice and the Christian life. Although Romans is rightly considered Paul’s most important theological writing, he most of...
[read more]I come from a people called the Banyamulenge. We are cattle herders and live in the high mountains of eastern Congo overlooking Lake Tanganyika. Over the years, my people have been forced from one area to...
[read more]
To introduce our summer preaching series on Philippians, I called my sermon How to Pray for the People You Love, because that’s what the apostle Paul does in the opening verses of his letter. Some years...
[read more]