There's a great scene in a classic episode of The Simpsons in which Homer, having been chosen to go into space as an 'every-man', breaks an ant farm, sending the ants everywhere in the zero-gravity environment. One of the ants, panicking, screams, "Freedom! Horrible horrible freedom!" It's a line that comes to my mind often, … Continue reading The Freedom to Love: A Reflection on 1 Corinthians 8.1-13
I remember many years ago listening to a dialogue between two theologians, one Protestant and one Orthodox, about our language surrounding light and darkness. The Protestant — I sadly don't remember who the participants were — made the statement that he didn't believe we would be able to successfully address racism in our culture until … Continue reading The Darkness of God
One of the major themes that comes out in the Sunday readings for Epiphany season this year is that of calling, or vocation. In fact, it is the theme of the readings from the Hebrew Bible and Gospels both last week and this week. Because vocation is something I think about a lot, I thought … Continue reading According to God’s Purpose: Four Calling Narratives
A few weeks ago, I wrote about 2020 being a year of audibles: having to change the plan on the fly due to circumstances outside our control. It's easy enough to frame it like this looking back, but I have to admit it wasn't a smooth process. It took a bit of time, prayer, and … Continue reading The Vocation of Now
Today's Epistle contains what I think is probably one of the most surprising and helpful things the Apostle Paul says in his writings: A new grounding of morality and ethics that doesn't just do away with the Law, but rejects the binary of 'permitted' and 'forbidden', or 'lawful' and 'illegal' altogether. In the sixth chapter … Continue reading Everything is Permissible
Matthew Root 