So now begin the violet days, days of bruises and honour, the time of “bright sadness,” the season of Lent.   What is Lent?   The word “Lent” has nothing to do with “lending.” It is the season of the church year anticipating Easter—and the great days following that greatest of days. Christianity grew up largely in the Mediterranean and in Europe, so lent  comes from words for spring . As Easter marks the renewal of the world in the resurrection of our Lord, so the time leadin

“Be careful what you wish for,” runs the adage. Wishing, however, doesn’t matter much to most of us. When did wishing ever make it so?   “Be careful what you pray  for” should matter to those who pray to Yhwh, Maker of heaven and earth. Yhwh is the living God, and he makes things so. Christian nationalism is in the news because it is so entwined with the Trump administration. And what happens in America happens to the rest of the world. Meanwhile, forms of Christian national

One of the enduring myths among modern critics of Christianity is that there isn’t anything truly new in it. The Christian religion is a mere miscellany of moral teachings dressed up in tall tales borrowed from the common stock of the world’s religions.   As we draw near to Advent, we’ll likely hear that the idea of a virgin giving birth to a special son is at once not essential to the Christian message and not original to it, either. On the first count, we’ll be told that on