The Roofless Church

Category: Christ

  • Haunted By Forgiveness

    Haunted By Forgiveness

    For the entire week before George Floyd was murdered, I meditated on the teachings of forgiveness in light of Jesus’ execution in preparation for a sermon on forgiveness. In order to get myself into the mindset, I imagined myself forgiving a police officer who was killing me and I watched an hour and a half…

  • State of Confusion 2020

    Sometimes I feel actual physical discomfort when I think about the decisions that are before our world over the next generation or so. I’m the type of person who will choose to try and see where other people are coming from almost to the degree of great emotional risk. I have listened to people of…

  • Awakening From Death to Life

    Awakening From Death to Life

    Faith Though I’ve spoken at length I haven’t said a word And all this nothing that I’m saying Is nothing but absurd I speak with lies So that you might hear the truth I display for you illusion That you might have proof Do you know that this life, as most of us engage it,…

  • The Story You Refuse to Hear May Be Your Own

    In a recent sermon called, The Search for the present Christ, I challenged my community to reflect on the image of Afro-Cuban artist, Harmonia Rosale’s work, I Exist, which features a black woman on the Cross. I asked them to do this not because I was trying to be provocative in the shock value sense,…

  • Christ Is of Faith

    Christ Is of Faith

    One of the tensions of the Christian tradition is the “already, but not yet” element of the Gospel. How I understand this is that people who are seeking to follow Christ, are living in the faith that the work that he set out to do among us is already accomplished. And yet, in our daily…

  • Pretending to Be You

    Pretending to Be You

    There is this common idea in the world of appearances that is described as “faking it until you make it”. When I first heard that saying, it was disturbing to me. The way I interpreted it was that people should pretend to be someone others think they should be. This was something people advise people…

  • Powerful Beyond Measure – Part 1

    Powerful Beyond Measure – Part 1

    I remember when I first received the email. I was sitting in my cubicle—a place that didn’t reflect my inner life. I don’t remember who the email was from. But, it was one of those inspirational emails that starts off lifting your spirits and then lets you down by saying that you have to send…

  • Breaking Through Before Breaking Free

    As I prepared my sermon for this Palm Sunday, I felt this sinking feeling. At first, I couldn’t figure out what it was. The truth is I’ve never been a holidays person. Even as a child I asked, “Do we have to do this Christmas thing every year. Actually, I get anxious during almost every…

  • Escaping the Prison Industrial Mindset

    Escaping the Prison Industrial Mindset

    Tonight I realized that I feel safer in cars that look like I can afford them. That is a sad awareness that I need to work on more deeply. How I realized this was that I had to rent a car. I had a coupon that enabled me to get a compact for the same…

  • Our Word’s Matter

    Our Word’s Matter

    A number of year’s ago, I had a book proposal rejected by a publisher. The book was based on the opening verses of Hebrews 11. 11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so…