Any Day a Beautiful Sermon

God goes to extraordinary lengths to reassure us that we are loved, and that we are never alone.

Once upon a time, everybody believed in God. Now... not so much.

No matter how many paragraphs I drafted and deleted, no matter how many angles I considered and rejected, I could not conjure a sermon about hope that did not name the conditions that are causing many to despair.

They had heard the good news. The women had done what they were supposed to do: they went to the disciples and passed along the message they received from the angels: Christ is Risen. But the men did not respond with a joyful “Christ is Risen, indeed!” They responded by mumbling, “nonsense.”

As it turns out, you cannot write about marriage from a Christian perspective without addressing texts such as this one. Paul’s words about marriage in his letter to the Ephesians are, for many theologically and culturally conservative Christian communities, central to the definition of marriage. They do not tend to be central to the way marriage is understood in progressive mainline congregations such as ours. But here’s the thing: I believe that as Christians, we must take the bible seriously. Not literally, mind you. But seriously. And ignoring texts such as this one does a disservice to the community of faith.

I realize that I’m probably losing more than half of you when I confess this, but preachers should take risks from time to time, right? Here’s my risk: I confess that I really like tattoos. Not all tattoos. But a lot of them. I especially like tattoos that are meaningful, that tell a story...