Blog Archive
Contemplating the messiness of Christian life
The Messy Jesus Business Blog is an ecumenical Christian gathering of musings about what it means to live the Gospel today. A variety of contributors offer prayer, poetry, book reviews, creative nonfiction and prose about what it means to live a life of faith in our complex, modern times.
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Learning to abide in care
What does it mean to be a community of care? How can we deepen in our care for one another in a world so caught up in efficiency and the self-protection of individualism?
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Outsiders help the church grow
The 2015 movie Spotlight shows the painful and vital role of the outsider in exposing the systemic sex abuse perpetrated by clergy throughout Boston, and the U.S. Key outsiders, including the Jewish editor of the Boston Globe, the Armenian attorney representing survivors of abuse, and, most importantly, the survivors themselves, unlocked this horrific cover-up. One…
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My celibacy is steeped in a whole lot of love
On Valentine’s Day and every day, my celibacy is steeped in a whole lot of love. What does it mean to live consecrated celibacy on Valentine’s Day? In a world obsessed with relationships and sexuality, what does it mean to give that part of myself to Christ? I have been living religious life for 16…
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The sacred tension of solitude
My week alone is coming to an end. I’ve been in hermit mode, making a retreat in a cabin in the woods. It’s truly been a grace to be here, to escape from my normal routines and offer some focused energy to a big project. The solitude became a shelter; the quiet like a balm…
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Look down the line
In this moment, upon this crack, this still space of time — let yourself open wide. See the space before and beyond. Look down the line of time that ticks and see the spaces where you once stood. Notice how you — at times — held horror in your bones. Study the scars on your…
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Finding common ground in the din of debate
Debate divides this nation, and democracy is in disarray. On one hand, we enjoy light, good-natured disagreements: — Is the dress blue and black or white and gold? — Do you hear Yanny or Laurel? And then, there are the more serious debates; the ones that could be causing our civility to crumble. The latest…
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Beyond lonely scrolling
Sitting alone in a living room on a dark winter night, I am staring at a screen once again. With a TV buzzing in the background, I scroll down through tragic headlines, past photos of smiling babies and occasional political rants. The warmth of the laptop upon my legs and its glow across my face…
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Change isn’t linear
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” “I can’t believe I have to do this again,” I thought angrily to myself about a year ago as I made preparations to enter treatment for an eating…
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The mess of 2018 in five posts
Happy New Year, Messy Jesus Business readers! As the calendar pages turn, it is a good time to pause and consider how God’s graces have been at work in the past year. It is a time to give God thanks and praise, to honor the sacredness of God’s holy time. (If you’re in the La…
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How Do Words Become Flesh?
This womb of mine will not know the pangs of pregnancy. My skin will not tighten when another body becomes part of my flesh. My inner organs will not shift to make room; my ankles will not swell; my appetite will not increase because my body is making another person. This womb is empty, creased.…
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O Come Emmanuel: Free us prisoners
Sitting next to me in another hard, plastic chair is a good-hearted man wearing brightly colored scrubs — colors that label him as guilty of a crime. We’re in a florescent lit room inside the county jail: bare white walls and glass windows, a camera overhead. There are about a dozen of us in this…
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Entry into Advent: the pacing of discovery
Psalm 80 is often read in churches all over the world during the Advent season. Throughout this psalm of yearning we pray, “restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.” I live in a neighborhood that shares rhythms of prayer each day. We are a…
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