Deus Misereatur

 In the past two weeks I have sat down with, and listened to, three young men who are completely different. They have told me tales of how their inner voices have accused them, how their world has been consumed by feelings of doubt, dismay, and dread. Two have clinical diagnoses and the third doesn’t. But their internal stories that they have related to me have all voiced their obsession for vindicating themselves, fixing themselves, grasping for certitude, and more. They are haunted men, in some significant ways. “A Quiet Mind to Suffer With: Mental Illness, Trauma, and the Death of Christ” is the story of John Andrew Bryant, a caregiver, writer, and part-time street pastor in a small steel town outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who has chronicled his plunge into mental illness and his gut-wrenching trek through the dark night of the soul in this 312-page paperback. As I read his tale, it struck me how similar – in all of the dissimilarities – these lives were. And I found that th...

  [From my weekly letter to my congregation sent today: 29 November 2023] Recently I sent out a prayer for Thanksgiving on social media. Several of you commented on it, one or two asked about its origin, and some of you used it as a family-gathering devotion. So, here’s the story. The prayer originally comes from William Bright and was published in his “Ancient Collects and Other Prayers” in 1864. That prayer caught the attention of some and was published in the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer in 1928, and in the Presbyterian’s Book of Common Worship in 1946. It was from the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship (1946) that I first stumbled on it and fell in love with it. But, I felt like I needed to tweak it a bit. This is how it reads originally: O MOST loving Father, who willest us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of thee, and to cast all our care on thee, who carest for us; Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that...

  O Lord Jesus Christ, who has generously given yourself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age, to deliver us from the dominance of the devil, and to deliver us from the fearful bondage of death; as our great High Priest you regard the humble prayers of all who call upon you, who call upon you in truth. Incline your ear and hear. Regard your Holy, Universal Church which you are sanctifying, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, including this church and Cross Timbers Church, Joy Mennonite, Prairie Hills Mennonite, and Crown Heights United Methodist Church. Rectify, O Lord, and have mercy upon all the ministers, pastors, elders, and overseers of your Church: aid us to shepherd the flock of God that is among us, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as you would have us do; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in our charge, but being examples to the flock (1 Peter 5:2-3). And keep your Church whole a...

  No one, just no one in their right mind writes a commentary on the book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Hebrew Scriptures. No one with any sense would dare delve into the tedium and trivialities of censuses and ancestry. No one with any sense, right? But lo-and-behold, Jay Sklar, vice president of academics and professor of Old Testament at Covenant Seminary, St. Louis Missouri, did just that! Adding his voice to “The Story of God Bible Commentary” series put out by Zondervan Academic, Sklar gives readers a 472-page hardback that will walk them through all of Numbers in a way that will surprise them. This straightforward, readable, and engaging (yes, I said it) commentary will take those who dare, and give them hope and direction and, most of all, it will give them Jesus.   As is standard in Zondervan’s “The Story of God Bible Commentary” the Scripture text is the NIV (2011) as the starting point of each chapter. Then it works through the passage by explaining what wa...

  What do you get when you cross a dark dystopian storyline with sci-fi, alternative dimensions, theological and philosophical questions, and the biblical book of Job? You get The Shift , written and directed by Brock Heasley, produced by Ken Carpenter, and distributed by Angel Studios. This roughly one hour and 45 minute tale swirls around Kevin (Kristoffer Polaha) as he moves from one realm of life, with it’s happiness and heartbreak, to another dimension that is a dismal existence clearly governed by The Benefactor (masterfully played by Neal McDonough). A viewer will be asking questions all the way through, and picking up clues and answers that pull the story together bit-by-bit. The story bumps up against an infinite set of alternative possibilities, of time, space, and versions of one’s self that will likely stoke a viewer’s imagination. But the heart of the narrative - besides love, grief, loss, trust/distrust - is around the place of evil, specifically, personal or human ev...

  I picked up the book at the new U.S. Marshal’s Museum in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. It’s also autographed by the author. It begins slow, as Sorukas tells his journey from childhood into the Marshal’s Service. But it begins to pick up steam and momentum as it recounts several cases he was involved in over the last 20-plus years. In this work the author puts on display the growing investigative skills of the Marshals service, and his own personal growth. He also clearly recounts the rivalry the plagues the various law enforcement agencies. Some of the bickering and power plays (between the FBI, ATF, USMS, etc.) are laughable - most times. At other times the rivalry and pride-of-ownership nearly derails investigations. Clearly, the last case he chronicles was important to Sorukas, as can be seen by the urgency and clarity with which he writes out the details. I was captivated by that final case, and couldn’t it the book down until I finished that chapter. There was also a long connection ...

  O Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior, your mercies and loving-kindnesses are new every morning. In your incarnation you united our humanity to divinity; you became the Son of Man that we might become sons of God; you brought us life and immortality to consume our death and mortality; and as our great High Priest you regard the humble prayers of all who call upon you, who call upon you in truth. Incline your ear and hear. Thank you for the many men and women who took oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution of these United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Thank you for their willingness to stand in the gap when called upon, and for weathering many essential (and sometimes idiotic) storms, exercises, conflicts, inspections, deployments and separations. There are many veterans stormed by moral wounding; moral wounds from the gruesome and gritty combat they experienced. So much so that many succumb to taking their own lives in high numbers. Bri...