Posts by Scott Dewey
The Courage to Disappear
This week’s gospel story depicts two people walking down a road with a stranger who joins them. So happens the stranger is famous, but they don’t recognize him. Like the airplane story, it’s a setup for comedy, but it’s no time for laughter. All three are in the aftermath of trauma, walking away from the scene of public and personal horrors. Primary trauma, suffered directly. Secondary trauma, witnessed and absorbed.
Read MoreIt is Written
“God hates,” men told her. Many men in fact, many times. Because they were religious, she believed them, because she wished to believe in God. The men held the sacred writings, copied from goat skins to gilded pages to church multimedia screens.
Read MoreSkin of the City
In one of my favorite Ted Talks, Educational Technology Specialist Sugata Mitra discusses his experiments with “Hole in the Wall” computers. These are computer kiosks left in Indian slums, among children with no prior contact with PCs. Mitra found that children, by pooling their knowledge and resources, learned how to operate the computers.
Read MoreGiven in Love
Kingdom not from here.
Read MoreThe Gift of Losing Control
Manning the gates against children.
Read MoreChild in the Middle
…of danger.
Read MoreBearing Witness to Goodness
Table waiters to all creation.
Read MoreLiturgy of Life
Taken, blessed, broken, given, spoken.
Read MoreVulnerability and Authority
Rebirth of mission.
Read MoreRiding the Waves of the City
Rattlesnakes, Chicago, fear, and faith.
Read MoreDismantling and Re-framing Family
A new frame for the family portrait.
Read MoreMake Yourselves At Home
…because you already are…
Read MoreIntimacy
Making eye contact with Jesus.
Read MoreGood Friday – God With Us, Alone
I have loved ones in hard places, and the hardest place of all may be the place of abandonment.
Read MoreMaundy Thursday – Flesh and Fluids
Mingling…
Read MoreThe Lightest Touch, The Touch of Light
The day my father changed everything.
Read MoreSuffering and Love
We didn’t know what Love would entail.
Read MoreAstonishing Authority
“I have the power to kill.”
Read MoreThe Word Without A Word
We too live in unstilled worlds. Unto us a child has been born, inarticulate, unable to speak a word – the Word.
Read MoreBEEP BEEP BEEP Arggg
In Mark we get a smelly guy yelling – dressed like a nutcase. Right from the opening verses. “Repent!” Literally, “get a different mind!” Wake up!
Read MoreUnlikely Hero in a Familiar Parable?
I have loved ones crushed by the powers of the world and thrown out. They’re struggling. Sometimes they are faithful, sometimes not. Me too.
Read MoreThe Crushing Weight of Purity
No one imagines our young people pure. Least of all, themselves.
Read MoreUn-Beautiful Questions
Traps that snap shut and questions that open wide.
Read MoreBuilders of Violence
The new comes – a marvel! But as we see the gospel story unfolding, the old will not go quietly.
Read MoreBinding and Loosing
In this and similar passages, Jesus doesn’t weigh in on whether he falls in the strict or loose camp. As a rabbi he makes a far more profound move.
Read MoreA Change of Heart for Jesus?
A disturbing reply to a desperate woman.
Read MoreTheoretical Considerations of Walking on Water
Transformation begins when we do too.
Read MoreLavish For Whom?
The fourteenth chapter of Matthew’s gospel tells of two lavish feasts, back to back.
Read MoreMy Well-Fitting Yoke
Your fully human self will suit you just fine, Jesus’ story says. Check in the mirror, you’ll see!
Read MoreGospel of Rejects
This gospel of rejects is the “way of salvation” hinted from the early pages of Scripture and revealed fully in Jesus. It’s at work in the world and in us. In our busy-ness building, are we paying attention?
Read MoreFormed Among Thorns
Spiritual purgation cleanses and clarifies the true identity into which we are being called and into which we are formed.
Read MoreLent: A Time
I’m personally no good at pausing, in writing or in life. I am in fact behind on everything all the time. My email inbox is crammed and messages are flashing on my phone.
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