fbpx

Volume 13, Issue 5

He Is Risen!

Cover Stories

Serving the “Why Not?” God
By Rev. Candace Chellew
We serve a “Why not?” God. This is a God that is very much alive — a God that can overcome any grave we put Her in — a God that constantly rolls away the stones of our own tombs, freeing us to live within the deep mystery that is our “Why not?” God.

Wait! There’s More!
By Lori Heine
When Jesus rose from the grave, it was God’s way of telling us — in a way at least some of us weren’t too dull to get — that This is Who God is. The God Who made seeds that, buried in the ground, sprout and burst out of the soil to grow into mighty trees. The God Who made us not for destruction, but for life.

There Will Be Surprises
By Melissa Capers
God’s first act was creation. The Resurrection tells us that God isn’t finished yet — that still, from void and formlessness and chaos, God is creating.

Rock Solid
By John H. Campbell
The main point I hope to convey is that I don’t think it matters one iota how you view the Resurrection. If you believe it was a literal and physical event, there’s nothing wrong, incorrect or invalid about that, it could well have been. If you believe as I do that it was a Spiritual Resurrection and His Spirit carries on and remains with us eternally, always with us and as close as our heart, that’s fine too.

Easter Grace
By Rev. Suzie Chamness
Resurrection happens everyday. We have all seen them. We may have even experienced them.

Features

The Illusion of Certainty
By Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
Like many Christians, I have been curious and dismayed about what seems to be the increasing appeal of fundamentalism and fundamentalist thinking within Christianity.

Preaching Good News to the Poor
By Debra Erickson
It is by now old news — or should be — that evangelical Christians have developed a social conscience that goes beyond wedge issues like abortion and gay rights.

Hyper-Muscular Christianity
By Joseph Laycock
In Seattle, self-described “charismatic Calvinist” Mark Driscoll preaches that “Jesus is a pride fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand, and the willingness to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship…I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.”

An Overwhelming Sense of Victimization
By Dr. Robert N. Minor
There’s something tacky about it. But it’s a recognizable, ongoing theme in AM talk radio, FOX News, conservative blogs, and right-of-center books and articles — white men don’t have a chance anymore.

Sex and Seminaries
By Martin E. Marty
In this half-century, like it or not, understandings of human sexuality combined with issues of authority — who decides about practices? — concern every body from Mennonites to Greek Orthodox.

My Presidential Inauguration Prayer
By Rev. Dr. Jerry S. Maneker
And we now, at the time of this new political era in the United States, face a cold turkey choice: are we going to keep viewing and calling ourselves decent, upright, and good people and still advocate and/or practice discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, or any other group of people for that matter, or are we going to be decent and Godly people, be we Christians or not, and embrace all of God’s children?

Letters to the Editor

From the Pulpit

When Love Comes to Town
By Rev. Candace Chellew
Christ may not be with us in body anymore — but love — that amazing Holy Spirit — still comes to town every single day — and every single day, we are there to witness the crucifixion of that love.

Bringing Down the Light
By Rev. Candace Chellew
It’s easy to fall into despair as we hear the bad news day after day. It’s easy to lose God’s light in this moment and turn inward — seeking to build booths for ourselves away from the world. But, it is in these dark times that God’s light is needed even more in the world. Even from our place of need and despair, we still have a lot to give in the world — and we must be about bringing down the light for everyone — even ourselves.

Holy Humor

The New Organist

The Miser