Taylor Mertins

The work of the Lord, of going to the margins for the sake of people on the margins is no easy task. For many, it results in punishment, isolation, and even death. Yet staying the course results not only in our transfigured lives, but also in the transfiguration of all things.

Fair warning: “practicing what you preach” is no easy thing. There will come times when the last thing we want to do is gather with the people whom we call the church. Whether it’s because they stand for different political realities, or they speak the truth in love (and it hurts), or they simply remind us too much of whom we really are, it is not easy being a faithful community together. Even Jes...

This is what I do know: The saving of anyone is something is not within our own power, it is exclusively God’s. No one can be saved – by virtue of what he/she can do. But everyone can be saved – by virtue of what God can do.

“How old is the earth?” might sound like an innocuous question without too many ramifications, but how we answer the question comes with a lot of consequences.

Evangelism always begins in friendship, in the intimacy of two people sharing life together. Evangelism takes place in the trust when listening becomes more important than talking. Evangelism comes to fruition when saving and winning others is more about them than us.

I have brought infants, toddlers, teenagers, and adults to the waters of baptism again and again because what God does through the Spirit is the most wonderfully disruptive thing that can ever take place. In those moments, God speaks from the torn open heavens, just like on the day Jesus was baptized to say, “You are my child.” And we are who God says we are.

A real old-fashioned Christmas, which is to say a biblical Christmas, is different. The strange new world of scripture opens up for us a scene where kings rage and wickedness rules the day, where the threat of taxation forces young couples to retreat to the comfort of their parents’ homes, and countries who think of themselves as the very best have forgotten the very least. You know, completely un...

Mary, in her remarkable song, reminds us that wealth and power have no ultimate influence in the realm of God’s kingdom. In fact, they are used to serve the lowly. That’s not a popular message to bear during Christmas, but it wasn’t popular during the time of Mary either. In fact, that’s the message that got Jesus killed. But, thanks be to God, we know that what started in the womb was also there...

The people receiving Jesus’ first sermon were uncomfortable with his proclamation such that they wanted to end his life. They couldn’t imagine God would so subvert and change the priorities of existence. They were far away from encountering a God who would resurrect his Son from beyond the grave. They were, in some ways, a lot like us.

We live in a world where women are made to feel less than men. And God is doing something about it.

As Christians, we rest in the darkness of Advent. But we also know the end of the story: we know that greater things are still to come, we know that only God can shake the foundations of the earth, we know that hope in God is unlike anything else in existence. We know all of this, because the promise in Mary's womb comes to fruition in the empty tomb.

When we feel the struggle of making a joyful noise amidst all the other noise this time of year, we return to God's great gift of music. For music is the magnificent agent that lifts our hearts to commune with the heavenly angelic choir. Music transforms our hearts such that we can know the Lord is good. Music is at the heart of God's majesty and mystery.

I have a love/hate relationship with church signs and billboards. There are some that will always make me laugh like, "The Church Isn't Full Of Hypocrites... There's Always Room For More." But there are also plenty of signs that make me cringe like: "Accept Jesus Or Go To Hell."

Tell the story when you are up and when you are down, when all is well and when all is hell, tell the story when you are received and when you are nowhere believed. Tell the story until sinners are justified, until the devil is terrified, until Jesus is magnified, and until God is satisfied!

In America we emphasize individual freedom to such a degree that we surround ourselves with people who look likes us, think likes us, and vote like us. But saints are people who give their lives not to a donkey, and not to an elephant, but to The Lamb.

In a time when the word “love” is greatly abused, it is important to remember that the fundamental component of biblical love is not affection or hallmark cars, but service. To love is to serve.

We can put all of our trust in our money, we can use it to do all sorts of things in the world, but if we think that it all belongs to us, or has come to us simply because we deserve it, then we’ve failed to recognize the One from whom all blessings flow.

The church doesn’t exist to make a difference. Instead, the church exists to praise the living God who fills our lives with the kind of joy that sustains us through both the mountains and valleys we experience. Church isn’t about us. It’s about God.

Whenever we open the scriptures and study we are entering into the strange new world of the bible, one that shines a light on what our lives really look like even today.

Worship is practice. We do it over and over to tone our spiritual muscles in order to do the work of the Lord.

To those who love the church: make more room for it, bring to it your best and highest devotion. And to those who are not sure about the church: you will not find perfection here, but come anyway, and help us make the church better.

Offering forgiveness isn’t easy. Receiving it might be even worse.

I’ve been in enough hospitals to hear doctors refer to their patients not by Mrs. Smith or Mr. Jones, but by a room number (or worse: by their disease). There are plenty of people who are judged simply because of the color of their skin, or their political persuasion, or their sexual orientation without their names ever being mentioned. Names are important.

In the realm of the church, in Christianity, to reject Jews, or any other marginalized group, is simply unchristian. For in God’s vision of the holy mountain, Christians are the gentiles who are gathered to join the Jews. We are the outcasts, the foreigners, the outsiders grafted into God’s great communion. To reject the outcast is to reject ourselves.

We can tell ourselves that what happened in Charlottesville will never happen in our town, but it does; it happens each and every day in some small way, shape, or form.