Each week, we publish a teaching by a faith leader on issues of spirituality and social justice to help our subscribers live their faiths more fully. We invite you to explore those teachings here on our website. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please sign up here

Costly Grace

Costly Grace

Costly Grace  By The Rev. Craig A. Phillips, Ph.D. In the Gospel of Matthew, we encounter the following difficult saying of Jesus. It is what is often called a “hard saying,” meaning that for the most part it is not something that we who read it want to hear or do....

The Lord likes blue cheese 

The Lord likes blue cheese 

By The Rev. Craig A. Phillips, Ph.D.      Many people are committed to working for God in the church. As they go about the tasks at hand, they hope that they are doing what they call “God’s will.” In my experience, persons on Vestries and other committees of the...

The Loaf Keeper of All Creation

The Loaf Keeper of All Creation

In the Lord’s Prayer we ask God, who is “Lord” —the “loaf-keeper”—of all creation, to give us the “bread” we need each day to live. We do not ask the Lord for more than we need, but only for what we need to survive and flourish.

Winter Darkness – Or Light

Winter Darkness – Or Light

Darkness at first may seem like absence, aloneness. Yet we are not really alone. Silent darkness is a doorway to Utter Presence. God is always there.

Healing, Wholeness, and Justice

Healing, Wholeness, and Justice

The Gospel of Luke narrates Jesus’ healing of a woman with a spinal deformity that had caused her to hunch over for 18 years (Luke 13:10-17). I can identify with this story as I have had spinal surgeries, and I know how debilitating back issues can be. Perhaps you do too. 

Christmas Ironies

Christmas Ironies

Like many others, I fear that the true beauty, depth, and richness of Christmas is too often and too easily overlooked, whether by the commercialization of the season or by Easter, which typically receives greater preparation and reflection from the Church.