Word From Below
Peace Be With you
Made Flesh Here we are, almost two weeks past Easter Sunday, and yet I’ve still been thinking about Palm Sunday. …
By Lina Thompson
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The Reality of Resurrection
Made Flesh The Miracle of Easter is upon us. And like the disciples locked in the upper room in this…
By Fred Laceda
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Easter Sunday
Made Flesh He has risen! May the presence of the Crucified-Risen One slip behind walls of our well-defended lives today…
By Street Psalms
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Holy Saturday
Made Flesh Today’s reflection comes from Lana Rocke, one of 11 women currently in dicernment for ordination in the Street…
By Lana Rocke
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Good Friday
Made Flesh Of all the moments in the Passion story that usually arrest my attention, Peter’s denials in the dark…
By Jessica Louwerse
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Maundy Thursday
Today’s reflection comes from Sue Hudacek, Volunteer Coordinator for L’Arche Tahoma Hope, an intentional community where people, with and without intellectual…
By Sue Hudacek
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Transfer or Transform?
At the time of writing this reflection, we only had one mass shooting to lament. We grieve those who were…
By Joey Ager
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Strange Fruit
On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin. Chauvin’s knee was pressed into…
By Pat Thompson
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God’s New Age
When I was a kid, one of the things that I looked forward to was the vacation bible school program…
By Joel Aguilar
Word From Below
What if it’s Love?
In the spring of 2012, a group of students from one of Montreal’s finest universities, Concordia, broke into the Dean’s…
By Jenna Smith
Word From Below
The Tertium Quid
Ever move from applause to rebuke in the blink of an eye? We continue in our Lenten journey to the…
By Joel Van Dyke
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Remember our Baptism
Alimentando El Pueblo (Feeding El Pueblo) is a food distribution initiative that specifically caters to the Latinx community in my area….
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
Ash Wednesday: The Sound of the Genuine
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Christians worldwide will enter into a heightened time (40 days) of prayer,…
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
Transfiguration of Power
Recent events in Myanmar and the Philippines loom large in my mind as I write this reflection from Manila. Myanmar…
By Fred Laceda
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Just As You Are
Jesus took time for prayer. This isn’t the only place we see that. There are more than thirty references to…
By Rev. Sarah Wiles
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Be Silent O Unclean Spirit
In the text today, Jesus encounters a man with an unclean spirit and speaks truth with authority and authenticity to him. And it triggers his whole…
By Margartia Solis-Deal
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Ad-liberation
‘It just doesn’t fit their story of the neighborhood, the story they’re all living in,” She says with exasperation into…
By Joey Ager
Word From Below
Being Seen
I watched a movie the other night called “The Orator.” Set on the island of Samoa, in the present day,…
By Pat Thompson
Word From Below
Almost Drowning
I was baptized into an Evangelical church when I was seven years old and it was a terrible experience. My…
By Joel Aguilar
Word From Below
Born in Community
Tell me your birth story. If you are someone who has birthed a baby, you have heard this question countless…
By Katie Guertin-Anderson
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Hoping for Change
In the Spanish language the verb esperar means both “to hope” and “to wait.” It is a beautiful Advent verb,…
By Joel Van Dyke
Word From Below
Mary’s Light
She was a high-school senior. She told me she wasn’t feeling well and asked if I could give her a…
By Lina Thompson
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Light from Darkness
A prison cell may be the last place we look for light; they are dim by design. But in my…
By Fred Laceda
Word From Below
On the Edges
Wilderness. Uncultivated. Uninhabited. Inhospitable. Neglected. Abandoned. Disfavored. Dangerous. These words are commonly used to describe places of “wilderness.” And yet,…
By Jessica Louwerse
Word From Below
Blue(s) Christmas
We don’t listen to Christmas music in my house until after Thanksgiving. On Black Friday morning the prohibition is lifted…
By Joel Kiekintveld
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More Than Charity
Identify with those who have nothing. Not in charity alone so as to be a helper of those without food,…
By Tali Hairston
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Real Talent?
For those of us who were raised in the United States, we have a tendency to read the Parable of…
By Pat Thompson
Word From Below
Mad at the Maidens
This week’s text, The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, has often been used as a precautionary tale about who gets…
By Joel Aguilar
Word From Below
The Shoulders of the People
They do not practice what they teach.They are unwilling to lift a finger.They love the seat of honour. Jesus’ criticism…
By Jenna Smith
Word From Below
The Impossible Purity Tests
Last week I walked along Tacoma Avenue, and found myself passing Simone’s yellow tent on the grass right next to…
By Joey Ager
Word From Below
The Emperor’s Coin
My sister does this funny thing before she asks you for a favor. She says, “I’m going to ask you…
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
Should We Have a Dream?
I’m told there is no utility in my delusions yet I choose to imagine, envisioning a world of fellowship and joy….
By Tim Merrill
Word From Below
Entering the Building
Recently, our church community gathered in the parking lot of the campus. Together, like many other congregations, we are reflecting…
By Tali Hairston
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The Corner of Delridge and Roxbury
Whenever I read the parable of the landowner and the day laborers, my mind often drifts to the day labor…
By Pat Thompson
Word From Below
The Cancer of Unforgiveness
Cancer is something that scares us out of our minds, especially if our families have a history with it. In…
By Joel Aguilar
Word From Below
Binding and Loosening
We start Advent not with shepherds and angels and babies meek and mild. Instead we start with apocalyptic warnings. I don’t like it. I prefer the kids in animal and shepherd costumes—the cute Christmas. But we don’t always get what we want. Instead we start Advent with a passage that is full of images of floods, and people disappearing, and thieves.
By Rev. Sarah Wiles
Word From Below
Human Concerns
It is an odd image in this week’s text:, uprooting a tree (already challenging) and planting it into a body of water that is salty (impossible). But it is not surprising to talk of agriculture in terms of challenges, impossibilities, and indeed, as an act of faith. In downtown Montréal, Innovation Youth has been growing our expertise in urban agriculture for several years.
By Jenna Smith
Word From Below
The Human Catechism
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
Persistence
To be clear, this love isn’t just another law… It’s not another demand for perfection. Quite the opposite. It involves a healthy dose of failure and forgiveness from everyone involved. They are also key elements in our journey to becoming a force in creating true human community.
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
The Transformation of God
Filipino Muslims are our closest siblings, yet we are divided by our differences and a lack of trust. We were not prepared to address this lurking and lingering issue. We walked, as it were, down the road Jesus describes in his parable, asking whether we would continue to affirm the ossified lines of our identities, or transcend that which divides us?
By Fred Laceda
Word From Below
What You Have
We start Advent not with shepherds and angels and babies meek and mild. Instead we start with apocalyptic warnings. I don’t like it. I prefer the kids in animal and shepherd costumes—the cute Christmas. But we don’t always get what we want. Instead we start Advent with a passage that is full of images of floods, and people disappearing, and thieves.
By Rev. Sarah Wiles
Word From Below
Changing the Metaphor
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
An Invitation to Imperfection
We start Advent not with shepherds and angels and babies meek and mild. Instead we start with apocalyptic warnings. I don’t like it. I prefer the kids in animal and shepherd costumes—the cute Christmas. But we don’t always get what we want. Instead we start Advent with a passage that is full of images of floods, and people disappearing, and thieves.
By Rev. Sarah Wiles
Word From Below
The Hospitable Iconoclast
To be clear, this love isn’t just another law… It’s not another demand for perfection. Quite the opposite. It involves a healthy dose of failure and forgiveness from everyone involved. They are also key elements in our journey to becoming a force in creating true human community.
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
A Whisper
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
21st Century Pentecost
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
Will We Listen?
Like Peter, like Edwaan, and like so many of us, there is a longing for belief out on life’s “danger waters” — those places removed from the placid nature of peace and plenty. Persecution, pain, and tragedy inspire deep longings, often taking the shape of foolhardy propositions such as Peter’s, “Save me in these dangerous waters or watch me die.”
By Justin Mootz
Word From Below
Oneing
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
She’s Calling
To be clear, this love isn’t just another law… It’s not another demand for perfection. Quite the opposite. It involves a healthy dose of failure and forgiveness from everyone involved. They are also key elements in our journey to becoming a force in creating true human community.
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
The Sacrament of Hospitality
As fearful and terrorizing as it may be, the transfiguration causes me to long for a glimpse of the illuminated face of Christ and especially the body we have esteemed as most unlovable and unlikable. I pray that in meeting with such a vision, I will not be derailed, busying myself with building tabernacles, places where I can limit and control God’s uncontrollable light.
By Tim Merrill
Word From Below
Pastureland in a Pandemic?
After an encounter with the shadowlands of Ash Wednesday, we now sit silently in front of an opened curtain, revealing the five-week theater that is the Valley of Lent. The Gospel narrative for the first Sunday of Lent is that of the desert temptation.
By Joel Van Dyke
Word From Below
The Verbness of Easter
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
The First Word
To be clear, this love isn’t just another law… It’s not another demand for perfection. Quite the opposite. It involves a healthy dose of failure and forgiveness from everyone involved. They are also key elements in our journey to becoming a force in creating true human community.
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
Maundy Thursday
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
By Mary Pandiani
Word From Below
Good Friday
I imagine the rich man at the beginning of his day. He is a man about town, with pressing matters on his mind and very important people to meet. I am easily persuaded that someone like him has no time to volunteer with a local charity or dedicate himself to the protection of the less fortunate. But then we find Lazarus right outside his gate.
By Pat Thompson
Word From Below
Enough
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
By Ben Robinson
Word From Below
Embedded
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
By Dr. Joyce del Rosario
Word From Below
The Judgement of God
In our Lenten journey we are nearing the cross, the place where Jesus will make visible that to which we are blind and change the way we see forever. We will see the excluded one give birth to a new kind of community that is scapegoat free.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
Desire is Viral
Faith, hope and love are the antidotes to social chaos. But let’s be honest, they take a bit longer to spread than fear and anxiety. That is why in times like these, as the body of Christ, we are invited to get clear about what we want and whose desires we are borrowing.
By Kristy Humphreys
Word From Below
The Most Unlovable and Unlikable
As fearful and terrorizing as it may be, the transfiguration causes me to long for a glimpse of the illuminated face of Christ and especially the body we have esteemed as most unlovable and unlikable. I pray that in meeting with such a vision, I will not be derailed, busying myself with building tabernacles, places where I can limit and control God’s uncontrollable light.
By Tim Merrill
Word From Below
Setting Out From Where You Are
After an encounter with the shadowlands of Ash Wednesday, we now sit silently in front of an opened curtain, revealing the five-week theater that is the Valley of Lent. The Gospel narrative for the first Sunday of Lent is that of the desert temptation.
By Joel Van Dyke
Word From Below
Ash Wednesday: Desire
In the inner room we can finally stop acting. In the inner room we are free of the crowds who so easily rule and run us like puppets. In the inner room, we stop feeding on the unstable and fickle desires of others and learn to borrow our desires from the One who desires us.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
Moments into Monuments
God’s glory is the divinity of seeing and proclaiming the Passion and the resurrection, even in the darkest of places. The way of Jesus journeys into the desert and sees bread where others see rocks. The divine glory sees the imago dei in a demon possessed boy that others have marginalized.
By Ron Ruthruff
Word From Below
Becoming Human
To be clear, this love isn’t just another law… It’s not another demand for perfection. Quite the opposite. It involves a healthy dose of failure and forgiveness from everyone involved. They are also key elements in our journey to becoming a force in creating true human community.
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
The Box by the Door
This world’s devotion to middle class affluence is predicated on the sacraments of global gentrification’s hard sweeping brooms, capitalism’s consumerist temples, and a careless society’s superhighways that bypass the poor, the blind, and those crowded out by “progress.”
By Tim Merrill
Word From Below
Nunc Dimittis
As I stood at the pulpit and looked toward the pews, my breath was taken away. On the back wall of the chapel were several huge drawings of naked murder victims. An artist had taken a pencil and used it to bring to life the pain and agony of massacre and execution.
By Joel Van Dyke
Word From Below
Team Jesus
It’s when we’ve done just about all we can do to screw things up and yet still discover ourselves loved, forgiven and trusted at our most untrustworthy worst, that the Spirit is fully unleashed.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
Come and See
The authentic work of Christ and the work of the church is hard to do, if not impossible, from a distance. An incarnational ministry prioritizes proximity in order to “see” God.
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
Born from Afar
When did they recognize this deity in their midst? When did it dawn upon them? Exactly when did the epiphany occur? When did the light of ‘aha’ shine upon these unknown number of magi revealing the human one before them was the flesh and blood presence of the creator of their star in the heavens?
By Kristy Humphreys
Word From Below
Born in Grace
At the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, the night sky in Guatemala City explodes in bursts of color under the canopy of fireworks. Everyone heads outside into the streets to wish one another Feliz Navidad with hugs for neighbors, family, friends and strangers amidst columns of smoke and the barrage of bottle rockets.
By Kristy Humphreys
Word From Below
Born in Dreams
The Advent and Christmas seasons are a time to remember God’s call on our lives is constant, and it comes in many forms, whether we are sleeping or awake. It’s a call to a heavenly perspective that allows us to release our fears and see good news in the least likely places.
By Kristy Humphreys
Word From Below
Born from Below
Our jails, back alleys and slums are the “low” places that Jesus would have been born in today, away from the lights and festivities that mark the opulence our society strives for.
By Gideon Ochieng
Word From Below
Born in Scandal
Not too many years ago, in a community marked by a history of scandalous events, I encountered one of the wittiest and smartest kids I have ever met. His name was Kevin. Kevin understood what it meant to come from a scandalous background.
By Joel Aguilar
Word From Below
Born in Jail
John the Baptist, sitting In Herod’s prison with nothing but time on his hands, is beginning to question his expectations about Jesus. And I would imagine he’s wondering about his own life in light of his present circumstances.
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
Born in Wilderness
For Karen, the stairwell was her wilderness sanctuary, right in the heart of the merciless city. There, she found the space and solace to let loose and cry out with a loud voice. The oppressive thumb of drug addiction, abuse, pain and poverty could not find her in that place.
By Tim Merrill
Word From Below
Born into Chaos
We start Advent not with shepherds and angels and babies meek and mild. Instead we start with apocalyptic warnings. I don’t like it. I prefer the kids in animal and shepherd costumes—the cute Christmas. But we don’t always get what we want. Instead we start Advent with a passage that is full of images of floods, and people disappearing, and thieves.
By Rev. Sarah Wiles
Word From Below
Forgive Them
By the light of being forgiven, we come to see what we are doing. The more we undergo forgiveness, the more we can tell ourselves the truth about the endless stream of scapegoats we produce.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
Some Good News
Perhaps this is what we are to testify to … the third way Jesus himself incarnated. At the cross, God absorbed into God’s self, in the body of Christ, all violence. God absorbed it, and did not return it. God suffered violence for all time and for all situations.
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
Chewy Words
Just as the Sadducees in today’s Gospel refused to accept the realities of the resurrection, systems of privilege can be averse to the realities of those experiencing poverty, even while offering lofty banter on their behalf.
By Tim Merrill
Word From Below
Hospitality Inverted
There is a parade of attention around the celebrity Jesus as he passes through Jericho. The eyes of the crowd are riveted in the desire to get a glimpse of the great miracle worker and social (not yet media) influencer.
By Joel Van Dyke
Word From Below
Who is More Right?
To not judge ourselves in comparison to others is extremely difficult. Sometimes, the only way we know we are “right” is when we judge and compare ourselves against others; our opinions, our strongly held views, our values. The binaries of “right-wrong”, “good-evil”, “us-them”, etc. define who we are.
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
The Joy of All Desiring
We don’t know the specifics of her case, though I like to imagine her as the Rosa Parks of her community. What we know for sure is that she ultimately wears out the unjust judge with her demands. He grants her request, if only to get some rest. Unfortunately, this describes the experience of prayer for most of us. We feel like we have to work as hard the widow to get through to God.
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
The Salute of Grace
A children’s version of the story captures the triviality of the narrative – the last frame exclaims, “Don’t Forget to Thank Jesus.”In such simplified, moralistic versions of the story, the other nine lepers who don’t return to Jesus are vilified as ungrateful. However, we shouldn’t rush to cast judgment on them.
By Joel Van Dyke
Word From Below
Laboring in the Soil
It is an odd image in this week’s text:, uprooting a tree (already challenging) and planting it into a body of water that is salty (impossible). But it is not surprising to talk of agriculture in terms of challenges, impossibilities, and indeed, as an act of faith. In downtown Montréal, Innovation Youth has been growing our expertise in urban agriculture for several years.
By Jenna Smith
Word From Below
The Divide
I imagine the rich man at the beginning of his day. He is a man about town, with pressing matters on his mind and very important people to meet. I am easily persuaded that someone like him has no time to volunteer with a local charity or dedicate himself to the protection of the less fortunate. But then we find Lazarus right outside his gate.
By Pat Thompson
Word From Below
Burn the Ledger
Harry stopped me. He went out to his car and came back with a .357 Magnum. He laid it on the table, carefully covered his hands with his sleeves, emptied the chamber and handed me the gun. “It’s a gift,” he said. “I want you to have it.” He added with a warm smile. “It looks like you could use a little help around here.”
By Kris Rocke
Word From Below
Join the Party
I’ve been around a few “lost” people in my life over the course of my ministry. How many times have I heard (and said), “Man, dude is lost.” And in that statement, I feel sad and hopeless, like I have come to my limits in what I am able to do or offer. It requires too much sometimes, going after the lost.
By Lina Thompson
Word From Below
And a Kid Shall Lead Them
He was among several promising students whose families fled violence and economic crisis in their homelands, only to find a different brand of violence and economic crisis in Camden, New Jersey, USA. For these students, survival involves a series of practices, routines, and procedures only understood by those who have indeed counted the cost of the perilous cavalcade north.
By Tim Merrill
Word From Below
Guests of Honor
It’s the Sabbath again and Jesus is being carefully watched as he goes to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee. He senses the angst in the hearts of those in attendance who are trying to maneuver into position nearest to the host. Jesus decides to expose those present at the dinner to the idolatry and rivalistic posturing of their internal ranking system by telling a pair of parables
By Joel Van Dyke
Word From Below
A Tale of Two Daughters
Life had been slowly bleeding out of her for 12 years, so in one final act of desperation she reaches out to touch her last remaining vestige of hope: the edge of the robe of a great teacher in whom she would now put all the faith she had left. Note here that Mark emphasizes the woman’s faith rather than Jesus’s power.
By cody
Word From Below
The Canaanite Woman in Charlottesville?
Like Peter, like Edwaan, and like so many of us, there is a longing for belief out on life’s “danger waters” — those places removed from the placid nature of peace and plenty. Persecution, pain, and tragedy inspire deep longings, often taking the shape of foolhardy propositions such as Peter’s, “Save me in these dangerous waters or watch me die.”
By Justin Mootz
Word From Below
Even the Muscle Dudes’ Knees were Shaking
Like Peter, like Edwaan, and like so many of us, there is a longing for belief out on life’s “danger waters” — those places removed from the placid nature of peace and plenty. Persecution, pain, and tragedy inspire deep longings, often taking the shape of foolhardy propositions such as Peter’s, “Save me in these dangerous waters or watch me die.”
By Tim Merrill
Word From Below
Giving up on Control
In this week’s text, the Rich Fool thinks he can control and manage his life into a state of blissful completion. His land has been productive, and he has more than he knows what to do with. All he needs is a strategy, and he’ll have it made. “I know! I’ll just build bigger barns! Then I can relax and I’ll be happy.”
By Kristy Humphreys
Word From Below
The Vulnerability of Asking
We live in a fast food, speedy lube, online banking society. Reading today’s passage, it’s hard for many of us to see prayer outside of this cultural lens. “Ask and it will be given” seems like a loaded statement, filled with pie in the sky, cake on your plate, North American theology.
By Ron Ruthruff
Word From Below
Will One Thing
Jesus and the disciples are on the move. They enter a village and receive life-giving hospitality from two sisters in the intimacy of their home. Martha prepares the meal while Mary sits listening at the feet of Jesus. It is a beautiful scene that lasts but for two verses before Martha barges into the living room from the kitchen, upset that her sister has left her to do all the work by herself.
By Joel Van Dyke
Word From Below
Hostility and Hospitality
Filipino Muslims are our closest siblings, yet we are divided by our differences and a lack of trust. We were not prepared to address this lurking and lingering issue. We walked, as it were, down the road Jesus describes in his parable, asking whether we would continue to affirm the ossified lines of our identities, or transcend that which divides us?
By Fred Laceda
Word From Below
Being Sent, Being Received
All of these refugees are our sisters and brothers, daughters and sons of our loving God just like we are. They, too, are a part of the Body of Christ. Most of them, if not all, have probably been baptized, and by virtue of their baptism, they are sent – sometimes by direction, other times by desperation.
By cody
Word From Below
Let the Dead Bury their Dead
True confession, the relationship with my brother was broken. It was a love and hate relationship that hurt both of us deeply. We wounded each other in ways that we may never realize. His sickness and death, however, just brought all of the wounds to the surface.
By Joel Aguilar
Word From Below
The Cost of Liberation
We see people in our cities struggling everyday with their own demons: mental health, substance abuse, homelessness and more. We know, however, that their healing and restoration will require some sort of sacrifice on the part of the community and of the individual.
By Pat Thompson
Word From Below
The Right Word at the Right time
Jesus says, “I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now.” That’s odd to me. Up to this point, Jesus has already unloaded many things on to the disciples – a lot of important things. In fact, we know from 15:15, that Jesus had made everything known to them that the Father had made known to Him.