What Language Shall I Borrow: Reflections on Faith

The world feels broken, and we are worried. 14.10.2026 9:43 ↓

When we trust God’s providential hand, anxiety becomes a useful caution rather than a pathology.

Someone has said that our time is one of “bare, ruined altars.” 08.10.2026 11:15 ↓

And yet, it’s also a time when people are starving for some Word from the Lord.

There are some questions for which we want answers that science really can’t touch. 30.09.2026 10:36 ↓

Faith is a way of “knowing.”

What makes a people great? 23.09.2026 11:15 ↓

Jesus intends to replace his disciples’ “love of power with the power of love.”

Being a Christian is not a solo performance. 16.09.2026 9:59 ↓

Jesus Christ functions like the director of an ensemble.

Every period of history provokes new insecurities. 09.09.2026 8:28 ↓

God has promised: “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

The letter of James asks, “Are any among you sick?” 02.09.2026 11:10 ↓

“They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.”

Some of the deepest truths require a story that kindles the imagination. 26.08.2026 11:10 ↓

Noah’s Ark and the Sacrament of Baptism.

The universal church has a shared job description. 19.08.2026 10:15 ↓

The church of Jesus Christ needs to cherish its role as intercessor and advocate for those from whom society would prefer to turn away.

Insofar as our human capacities are concerned, God is next to unknowable. 14.08.2026 10:15 ↓

Unless God chooses to be known, our attempts to know God are going to fall short of the mark.

Is God’s mercy too generous? 05.08.2026 9:52 ↓

God’s mercy can be found even where we don’t approve of it.

We live in a culture that can be suspicious of the intellect. 30.07.2026 9:47 ↓

Can we love God with heart, soul, and mind?

In Texas, the government wants to require public school students to learn about the Bible. 22.07.2026 10:36 ↓

I object for both political and religious reasons.

Would we recognize an authoritative voice if we heard one? 17.07.2026 11:22 ↓

When it comes to authority, you know it when you see it.

Some scriptural stories shed light on others. 01.07.2026 10:50 ↓

Stories about meals point to God’s divine action.

The Lord’s Day liturgy resembles a dance. 29.06.2026 10:51 ↓

Explaining the dance is not a substitute for joining in the dance 

We can’t easily calculate how things will fit together to shape the future. 17.06.2026 10:08 ↓

The ultimate future belongs to God.

Christian theology is communal at its very core. 10.06.2026 11:52 ↓

Community is a gift of grace.

There! Does that make everything perfectly clear? 03.06.2026 11:13 ↓

Faith is a judgment “in the light of a truth that cannot be proven.”

The new convert had been led to expect the Holy Spirit to do something dramatic. 27.05.2026 11:02 ↓

I hadn’t expected to become a believer and certainly didn’t expect or experience a dramatic or ecstatic moment.

He ascended into heaven. 20.05.2026 10:45 ↓

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Jesus “descends into hell” to be where we are, where we have been, or where we may yet be. 14.05.2026 10:30 ↓

“We know of none whom God has wholly and exclusively abandoned to himself.  . .only of One who was lost. This One is Jesus Christ.” – Karl Barth  

To speak of holy things requires using earthbound language in creative ways. 06.05.2026 12:27 ↓

The Reformer John Calvin spoke of scripture as God’s “baby talk.” It’s not written just for intellectuals or experts.

Neither English nor any other human language has the capacity to speak directly about God. 29.04.2026 10:52 ↓

Only by improvising, juxtaposing one image alongside another, do we have any chance of glimpsing the enormous grandeur of God.

The Apostles’ Creed is a brief summary of the Christian faith. 22.04.2026 10:39 ↓

We may spend a lifetime wrestling with the creeds, challenging them and being challenged by them, while growing into them.