Catch up on Touchpoints by Spirit in the Desert spiritual director, Henry Rojas, as well as archival Touchpoints by former faith mentor, Rev. “Bro. Jim” Hanson.
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Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” John 2: 13-22 I was online the other day and a headline popped up on the side of the page, “The Wealthiest Pastors in America” it said. So I clicked on it and read and looked at pictures of how the richest pastors in America live. WOW!!! Impressive!!! One of those pastors lives in Houston. You may…
A Defining Moment
Grace and peace from Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. But Peter grabbed him in protest.” Mark 8:31-38 It’s a question of definitions. What is the essence of the Christ? What is the end game of the Divine? What does it mean to be ‘saved’? Or what is ‘salvation’? This is what is getting worked out in this passage. And it’s not something we can gloss over. In the previous verses, Jesus asks the disciples,…
Time For a Spring Dirting
Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. 3:19b Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19b It’s probably one of the least popular phrases in our liturgical year. If you were to conduct a survey of favorite worship lines or phrases, I doubt it would rank up there with “This is the feast of victory for our God.” Or even, “Lamb of God, you take away…
When God Became Unhinged
Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make a dwelling for you and Moses and Elijah.” Mark 9:2-6 In reading all the commentaries on this passage, there seems to be one point of agreement… The Transfiguration story is a hinge story. It is a transition story. It stands as a mid-point hinge in the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus now…
Jesus as Garbage Man
Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. As soon as they left the synagogue…they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.” Mark 1: 29-39 What a difference a month makes. Just a few short weeks ago we were celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany and the story of the kings…the 3 kings our tradition says. Those 3 great kings who brought those amazing gifts to Jesus. Gold,…
Religion’s Demon
Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have or being. What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us?” Mark 1:21-28 Let’s get the answer to that question out of the way right off the bat. The answer is YES, that is exactly what the Christ has come to do to us. Does that answer surprise you? Why? For every empty tomb in your life, that tomb…
God’s Net Worth
What a powerful image, being reborn as ‘food of grace’ for others.
Resurrection, not Insurrection
And this is where the restoration of our country will begin. In us. In us no longer staying quiet in the face of economic, racial, and judicial inequality. In us being brought into God’s kingdom rather than us trying to bring God into our kingdoms, and justify our kingdoms.
Something Needs to be Said
Grace and Peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” Mark 1: 4-11 It’s a question of starting point. Where do you start in your journey of faith? What’s the basis for it all? John the Baptist and Jesus seem to have two different starting points. And we seem to like John’s the best. John’s starting point is about us doing something. It…
Mary Christmas
Grace and peace from the Mystery in whom we live and move and have our being. “Hail, favored one. The Lord is with you.” And, “Your relative Elizabeth…has also conceived a son.” Luke 1: 26-38 Wow! What an incredible thing to hear. The Lord is with you. The Lord has found favor with you. Who wouldn’t want that?! But then, as Paul Harvey would say, there is the “Rest of the story.” “You Mary, are so favored by God, and…
I AM (not)
This is the SIN the Lamb of God takes away from the world – our trying to be or become THAT which we think we NEED to be. Because when you realize you are not the Messiah, you actually get your life back as a gift – to be lived – and not something you have to save.
Thieving Jesus
And maybe what we need to be bringing into this world is something less, not something more. And what I mean by that, is that maybe what we first need to bring to this world is a confrontation with our need for “more,” for accumulation, for consumption. To speak a word of subtraction rather than addition.