Beatitudes Blog

Waking Nicodemus

Waking Nicodemus

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God (Matthew 5:9). At night, we sleep.  We also do then what we never do in the light of day.  I, Nicodemus, visited Jesus at night. I did not go to scout for my colleagues in our clerical court called...

Dusk At Shiloh: Sermon on 1 Samuel 3

Dusk At Shiloh: Sermon on 1 Samuel 3

Sermon text: 1 Samuel 3 Something sacred happens at dusk. The purple and orange clouds in the western sky herald the sun just set. The green of leaves and grass deepen like the sea, and the brown woods blacken. There is just enough light to see and search, just enough...

What Shadows Belie (poem)

What Shadows Belie (poem)

What Shadows Belie J. Marshall Jenkins In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it (John 1:4-5). The more light shines in my long memory, the more shadows proliferate. For an...

From Rapture Back to Earth: A Meditation on Mark 13

From Rapture Back to Earth: A Meditation on Mark 13

(Suggestion: Read Mark 13) Growing up in the rural South, rapture was in the air. Not the blissful rapture of lovers, but the gravity-defying rapture of fundamentalists and readers of Hal Lindsey’s mega-bestselling book, The Late, Great Planet Earth. This vision of...

Mountaintops and the Art of Freedom

Mountaintops and the Art of Freedom

Sermon Texts Exodus 20:1-17 (The Ten Commandments) Matthew 5:1-12 (The Beatitudes) For the YouTube of the sermon, click here. Mountaintops: Touching the heavens, we fancy them closer to God. Up in the thin air, we survey the mountain range and the valley below. The...

Until You Hear (poem)

Until You Hear (poem)

Until You Hear J. Marshall Jenkins If your life ends today before you think it means anything, another hundred years will not add a word unless, of course, you change your mind and trust it to mean something, you know not what. And that is good because now you can ask...

As a psychotherapist and spiritual director, I bring well-honed insight and skill to these posts; yet, my vulnerability plays a more important part, for more than advice from experts, serious people of faith need resonance with fellow travelers.

In my writing and in your reading and comments, may we face our challenges in God’s compassionate presence rather than in a private dressing room where we try in vain to make ourselves presentable to God at an appointed meeting. God meets us where we are.

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