Author Archives: maggiemax15

Sometimes we are simply overwhelmed by life’s realities. We seem to have no time or energy to put our gifts to work. Occasionally, we squander the gifts, either by inattentiveness or pursuit of paths we know are not helpful to ourselves or the kingdom. Other times we just draw back from life. Continue reading →

The kingdom of God shows up when and where we least expect it. We don’t expect it to show up in the gap between the bearable, even pleasant, or luxurious living condition of some and the unbearable, inhumane living conditions of others. We don’t expect it to show up in the offer of the ability to see that gap and move from seeing to active compassion before it is too late. But we ought to have learned by now that the kingdom of God is not a prisoner to our expectations. Continue reading →

The good news—bidden or unbidden God breaks into our world of fear, terror, and loneliness. Jacob’s dream, which he dreamed somewhere in the middle of nowhere, opens to him a whole new way of being in the world. Finding oneself encompassed by God’s presence transforms our world. So there it is – bidden or unbidden, in the most fearsome and lonely places of our lives, God is there and not with judgment or condemnation but with promises and protection. Continue reading →

“Saving,” as Paul describes what happened to him is certainly not ignoring sin and the harm it does. Saving is not moving a name from one column to another. Saving is re-commissioning someone for new work. It is taking a persecutor of the church and turning him into an ambassador of Christ. Saving is the human equivalent of fashioning swords into plowshares or a rather sophisticated form of human recycling. Continue reading →

Love sometimes requires going out on a limb and advocating for people who are powerless in systems which resist and resent their values being subverted. The task is still immense and continues today – wherever human beings are reduced through systems, prejudices and governments to things, useless or useful. Continue reading →

Persistent faith permeates our thoughts. It consumes us. How can this happen? Verse 8 states that we are to speak the Book of the Law continually and to meditate on it day and night. I don’t know about you but this would require me to turn off the TV, stop playing computer games, and put down the novel I was reading. It sounds to me that persistence takes practice! Continue reading →

Persistent faith permeates our thoughts. It consumes us. How can this happen? Verse 8 states that we are to speak the Book of the Law continually and to meditate on it day and night. I don’t know about you but this would require me to turn off the TV, stop playing computer games, and put down the novel I was reading. It sounds to me that persistence takes practice! Continue reading →

We are not alone as we struggle with diversity of opinion, lifestyle, worship, and politics in our Meeting. We need to ask ourselves what radical visions lead to polarization in our Meeting. Dare we pursue potentially polarizing courses – perhaps related to global climate change, racism, economic injustice, inequalities in education, health care, and due process in the legal system? Can our meeting be both brazenly prophetic and empatheticaly pastoral? Continue reading →

The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that such statements which pretend to being foundational for faithfulness are at best tent stakes which mark where we are in our faith pilgrimage and the holes left from where they are pulled up when we move on are quickly filled in by the sand which had held them. We are wilderness wanderers and the appropriate role for our Elders is to point a way forward through a constantly changing landscape, not defend where we most recently erected our tents. Continue reading →

Adam Smith argued the philosophical notion that self-interest would lead to moral behavior as perhaps a replacement for Christian morality. Was he right? Continue reading →