Anabaptist and Quaker essays, sermons, and other writings
I love watching cooking competitions. I started watching them with my grandmother Diana and have continued the tradition with my daughter Diana Grace. One of the genre’s most iconic shows is Hell’s Kitchen. On the show, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey mentors teams of chefs through a series of challenges until […]
I share two poems centering my Palestinian identity and experience. As a Palestinian Christian, I aspire to walk in Jesus’ footsteps in challenging oppression, empire, and occupation. I provide an introduction to Palestine for readers to better understand the context of the poems. I first provide a brief introduction to […]
It is no exaggeration to say that I would not be a Christian today if it was not for Romans 7:15 and 19, in which none other than the Apostle Paul – chosen to be God’s instrument’ chosen to bring the name of Jesus before Gentiles and kings and before the people […]
Humanity has been living in the tension of God’s already and not yet Kingdom anticipating the end of time. Since time immemorial, the calamities have sometimes been associated with the end time. For instance, the occurrence of war, diseases, floods, and famines are a few. It is recorded, When he […]
Do you think the twelve disciples ever wondered why Jesus chose them? Perhaps some of them thought they knew. When they were arguing about who was the greatest, for example, can’t we just hear Peter, “Well, you know Jesus chose me because somebody had to be the one to actually […]
…I believe, biography, any and every biography, is inherently theological, in the sense that it contains already…the news of the gospel…We are each one of us parables. ~William Stringfellow A long, long time ago, in what feels like a galaxy far away from my here and now, two friends and […]
My paternal grandmother, whose maiden name was Hollaar, grew up on a farm in North Dakota with eleven brothers and sisters. Their children – my father’s generation – included fifty cousins. With such a large and widely-dispersed extended family, the Hollaars got into the habit of having a family reunion […]
A few years ago when my children were small, a Moms and Tots group would meet in our church building. Being one of the pastors of the congregation, sometimes it was just nice to drop my kiddo off and return to the office for a few uninterrupted hours of work. […]
This month marks six months into my first pastorate. As I continue to settle into my new role as Co-Pastor at Harrisburg First Church of the Brethren and integrate myself into different aspects of the city, I am constantly reminded that there is never a dull moment in urban ministry. […]
The Liberty Bell numbers among our best-known national icons. There is a biblical quote inscribed on the bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto the inhabitants thereof. Lev. XXV v. X.” Curiously, those words were cast into the bell about a generation before the Declaration of Independence, at a time […]