Category: Blog

Last year, a friend shared with me that some Hasidic communities have a tradition of reading a Psalm on your birthday of the age you are turning, plus one. You read this Psalm on your birthday, and you meditate on it throughout the year. My birthday was yesterday and I read the 28th Psalm. I…

While at Yale, I loved the creative daily chapel services in Marquand Chapel. On one fall day in 2018, there was a collection of small glass containers on a table right inside the chapel, with a sign that said “take one.” I soon learned that the tiny objects inside were mustard seeds. Of course I…

I have a theory that you get a window into someone’s brain if you see what internet tabs they have open on their cell phone. Most millennials keep web-browser tabs open as a quasi to-do list to which they hope to return (but often don’t). When I suggest my theory people often blush and quickly…

You may be wondering how I chose the name for this website. I imagine the play on words with my name feels obvious, but there are many layers here. I preached a sermon on Exodus 17 in November of 2022. I had just returned from a trip to Jordan, Israel, and Palestine and I found…

I spent this past weekend with old friends at one of their homes in the Shenandoah Mountains. We have known each other since divinity school, so our time together flows easily. On our second night, one friend mentioned to the other that she’d noticed how he seems much more confident and at ease in this…

Are you someone who says “we” often? “We” is a small but mighty word. At its worst, “we” is used to erase individuality and speak on behalf of others: “We all think…” or “We all want…” when the person included in the “we” might not want to be included. At it’s best, “we” is used…

I worked as a hospital chaplain from October 2020 to May 2022. Hospital chaplaincy is a difficult line of work in general, but this was a particularly difficult period of time in the field. I entered the hospital for the first time before receiving a Covid vaccine, when there was a collective shock shared among…

“Ayeka” is God’s first question in the Bible. “Where are you?” God is in search of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3; The pair has just eaten the fruit from the forbidden tree (N.B.: Palestinian tradition says the fruit was an aphrodisiac pomegranate, not an apple) and they are now hiding from God. It seems…

On Christmas morning I sat in church, listening to a sermon on the Incarnation. I realized that I have not spent much time thinking about the Latin word incarno. This verb combines “in” with “carnis” — which we usually translate as “flesh.” We read John 1 in the service and heard about how “the Word…

I recently saw a post saying that Calvinist Santa would put everyone on the naughty list. While this is a hilarious take on Total Depravity, it also reminded me that God’s view of us does not exist on the naughty-nice spectrum. No matter how much we might hope to put ourselves on one end, and…