It’s a truism to say that humans are innately social creatures. Belonging to a community was for all of our evolutionary and cultural history, necessary for survival. It’s no surprise then, that we are a species of copycats: from how we pick up words and behaviours as small children (there is no more eager house … Continue reading Do This in Remembrance of Me: A Reflection for Maundy Thursday 2023
On Holy Wednesday, we remember the story the betrayal of Jesus at the hands of his disciple Judas. What was Jesus’ great crime for which Judas was willing to betray him? Basically, it was simply for not being who Judas thought he was. What makes this line of thought ironic is that it means that … Continue reading Betrayed: A Reflection for Wednesday in Holy Week 2023
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the late, great Black feminist thinker Audre Lorde’s words, “The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.” It was a warning to marginalized communities against co-opting the tactics the powerful have used against them, for that only serves to perpetuate the cycle of injustice rather than to … Continue reading The Master’s Tools: A Reflection for Tuesday in Holy Week
The focus of Monday in Holy Week is a quiet story of Jesus spending time in Bethany with his friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha before he enters Jerusalem (John 12.1-11). It’s a story with a surprisingly large cast of characters, all with different motivations for showing up and for responding as they do. It’s worth … Continue reading Who Am I, Today? A Reflection for Monday in Holy Week 2023
One of the fascinating things about how the first Christians understood what had happened in the world in and through Jesus is just how topsy-turvy, unexpected, and ironic it all was. As they read their Scriptures, they suddenly saw Jesus everywhere in them, even if this caused them to read those Scriptures from a different … Continue reading Palms and Crosses: A Reflection for Palm Sunday 2023
Matthew Root 