Robert's Blog

It is Martin Luther King Day. On MLK Day I try to read something from him—usually Letter from Birmingham Jail. This year, though, I ran across a quote from his Montgomery Bus Boycott speech in the book I’m currently reading for the “Heretics” group (the name has a fun story behind it), and it intrigued me enough to go read the entire speech.

In this speech, Dr. King was preparing the community for what would happen during the boycott and how people would respond to it. The quote that really caught my attention was this:

“Let us be Christian in all of our actions. But I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love; love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian faith. There is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love.”

If justice comes out of love (and I believe it does), then love has to guide our motivations, our actions, and our tactics. When love is the foundation, you can’t fight with the weapons of the enemy—because if you do, you’ve already lost. But that doesn’t mean you don’t fight. You have to. Love will always revolt against that which is not love. It has to.

One of my goals for 2026 is to start blogging again. It isn’t really the thing anymore—I guess if I wanted to be on trend, I’d start a Substack or something else that has appeared since I last looked around. But the reason I want a blog is simple: writing helps me focus my thoughts. This is a way for me to do that.

So, to whoever wanders through the interwebs and accidentally finds this, remember: this isn’t really for you… it’s for me… so get over it.

That sounds more aggressive than I intended.

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Discovering Simone Weil

At the end of 2024, I read Simone Weil for the first time. The book was The Love of God & Affliction. I found her writing fascinating, and naturally I kept reading. Now, after only a year with her work, I can safely say I still know next to nothing about her thought.

The podcaster Dan Carlin likes to describe himself on Hardcore History as “not a historian, but a fan of history.” That’s how I would describe my relationship with Weil right now. I’m not a Weilian—just a fan of Weil.

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Love as Attention

One of the ideas that has really stayed with me is her understanding of love as attention. She writes extensively about attention, but this one line captures its essence:

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”

One of the few voluntary acts we truly have is choosing what we give our attention to—or choosing whether we allow someone or something else to claim it. This becomes even more important in a world where attention has become an economic commodity.

The attention economy is built on the belief that attention is scarce. Because of this, companies fight to capture as much of it as possible. Websites and services are designed to keep you there for as long as they can, because your attention serves their purposes.

And when our attention is fixed there, we ignore what—and more importantly who—is right in front of us.

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What We Fail to See

Sometimes that’s precisely the point. The “bread and circuses” of Rome kept people distracted, their attention fixed on spectacle rather than substance. Much of Simone Weil’s writing on attention highlights how easily we overlook the suffering around us—and how suffering continues because we refuse to see it.

She writes:

“The afflicted need nothing else in this world but people capable of giving them their attention.”

We choose not to focus our attention on the suffering before us, and therefore we comfortably do nothing about it. We choose not to see. Giving our attention to the afflicted is dangerous to the status quo.

The same is true in how we respond to those who cause harm. We focus on the evil they do and overlook the fact that they, too, bear the image of God. This doesn’t mean we don’t confront the evil, just that we don’t neglect to see the perpetrator as someone who also exists under Jesus’ grace.

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Attention and the People We Love

And of course, the same is true for the people closest to us—the ones we claim to love. Many of us carry devices in our pockets that promise endless capabilities. All they ask in return is our attention, and we hand it over freely.

So we sit in a car—whether for a long drive or a short one—and give our attention to our phones instead of the person beside us. We drift into the world Sherry Turkle described so well in Alone Together: sitting in public spaces (though we do that less and less) without interacting, because our devices have claimed our focus. We read our books, watch our movies, and go to our concerts with our attention willingly dragged off from the moment into another direction.

We don’t see anyone—including those we love most—because we’ve handed our attention to people, companies, and systems that want to use it for their own ends.

Attention is an act of love.

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So What Do We Do?

So what do we do? The simplest answer is to begin giving our attention to the people around us. Of course, this is difficult. Habits are hard to change, especially when the person you’re trying to focus on is also conditioned to give their attention away.

But try anyway. Put down whatever you’re doing when you choose to give someone your attention. When it feels awkward or uncomfortable, remember: this is what it feels like to practice something you’re not used to. Keep going.

In my faith, love is described very simply as sacrifice. Jesus on the cross is the greatest example of love in my tradition. Giving your attention to something meaningless is easy. But if attention is love, then it requires sacrifice—and sacrifice rarely comes easily.

Easy things are rarely good for us. Sacrifice usually is.

Listening to Episode 271 of the Mockingcast, I heard them reference an article from The Atlantic by Ellen Cushing titled “Americans Need to Party More” (the link is to Yahoo, which has a non-paywall version of the article).

The basic points of the article are:

• Surgeon General warns of a national loneliness epidemic: one in eight Americans reports having no friends.
• Party poopers? Only 4.1% of Americans went to social gatherings in 2023, a 35% drop since 2004.
• We love birthday parties (84%!), but only 59% attended one last year. Who’s going to throw them?

What I loved about the article was the author’s very practical analogy she uses to encourage people to take helpful steps. Her analogy is that you pay your taxes to make sure your community has the resources you need. Here’s what she writes.

Fire trucks, after all, don’t come from nowhere—they come because we pay taxes.

This year, pay your taxes: Resolve to throw two parties—two because two feels manageable, and chain-letter math dictates that if every party has at least 10 guests (anything less is not a party!) and everyone observes host-guest reciprocity (anything else is sociopathic!), then everyone gets 20 party invitations a year—possibly many more.

I think it is good advice. Pay your taxes. If you want community, you need to do actions that are communitarian. We need to put skin in the game.

As a pastor, I have had several discussions with people who said that they didn’t feel connected with their church. Invariably, when I asked how they were involved in their church, for example, did they serve somehow, the answer was “I’m not.” In future conversations, I am going to use the analogy of “paying your taxes” because I think it is very helpful.

My day typically starts with Premiere Insight’s Bible in a Year podcast and NPR’s Up First podcast. It’s a great way to begin each day.

Today, while listening to Up First, they discussed the growing number of people participating in Dry January. Although I am not a drinker, I have no judgment against anyone who drinks responsibly. If someone drinks irresponsibly, I won’t judge them either; instead, I’ll try to get them some help. My mindset is, “there but for the grace of God go I.”

What concerned me was that a national news program had a segment about choosing not to drink, and the tone suggested it would be a burden and difficult. Why would the tone be like this? Steve Inskeep, one of the hosts, responded with “boring” (albeit jokingly) when Lelia Fadel, the other host, mentioned, “And there’s plenty of other stuff you can do together, like do an arts and crafts night, go roller skating, cook together…” It just concerns me that this was considered a story for a national news program and they chose this tone. It also concerns me that I believe it is consistent for how many feel.

The whole thing just made me sad.

I think President Jimmy Carter is probably the best person to have been President of the United States during my lifetime. There may have been people who accomplished more during their time as President but no one has accomplished more good after their presidency was finished. It has been said that Jimmy Carter was the only President who ever used the White House as a stepping stone to greater things.

He is a great example of humbly working for the things that matter and trying to live out the way of Jesus in trying times.

Merry Christmas! I hope you have had a wonderful celebration of the Incarnation. Yesterday, I listened to a wonderful episode of Christianity Today’s “The Bulletin” podcast. The episode link is HERE. In it, I heard for the first time (or at least for the first time that I remember) this profound quote from Augustine of Hippo:

“Man’s maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.”

For me, this quote exemplifies so much of the audacity and humility of the Incarnation. When I stop and allow the mystery of God choosing to become human to save humanity to sink in, it silences me in awe. How great is His love for us?! I can barely comprehend it.

In preparation for Sunday’s message, which will be from Philippians 4:1-9, I have been reading some of the writings of the early Church Father Clement of Rome. He may or may not be mentioned in Sundays text (Philippians 4:3 mentions a Clement but we don’t know if it was Clement of Rome or not. Some tradition says it was him while other tradition says it was a different Clement). During some of my reading I was particularly struck by his First Letter to the Church in Corinth.

Clement writes this letter to the church that is a minority within their culture and are often persecuted socially and sometimes officially. There are some who describe the modern church in the West as living in a similar situation, though I would disagree with them – we are not a minority in the culture (at least yet) and we definitely are not persecuted. Still if you view the current situation as similar or even heading in the direction of the culture in which the 1st century church existed (1st Clement was probably written 70-96AD) you should want to listen to how the early church was told to respond to the culture. I believe it is good instruction for any follower of the way of Jesus regardless of the culture you are facing.

And how did Clement instruct the church to respond to the culture?

With HUMILITY and HOSPITALITY.

Humility: Clement emphasizes humility as a core virtue. In a world that often exalts pride and self-interest, he reminds us to follow the example of Jesus—the Humble One. Humility involves recognizing our dependence on God and treating others with kindness and respect.

Hospitality: Hospitality, too, emerges as a vital theme. It’s more than inviting friends over for dinner; it’s about caring for strangers, foreigners, and those in need. When we put others’ needs before our own, we embody the way of Jesus. Yes, it’s risky, but it’s also transformative.

Read the letter. It is all over it.

Clement’s instructions to the church came during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, probably the most ruthless persecutor of the church during the Roman Empire. This is instruction that we followers of the way of Jesus always need. We have to be constantly reminded that we follow the Humble One and therefore are called to be humble ourselves.

I believe hospitality comes out of that same humility. It is taking care of other people’s needs. Thinking of other first. It is inviting the stranger in. It is taking care of the needs of the foreigner. It is putting others before yourself.

Such actions involve uncertainty and often some chance, but they are the way of Jesus.

Follow the way.

In my view, many of the most profound insights during our weekly gatherings at Tapestry arise from the responses of our community members to the message. Often, someone adds depth to the discussion initiated by our speaker (who is usually me) with a question or comment, resulting in impactful moments for our congregation. These interactions can occur during the message itself, when I invite contributions at the message’s conclusion, or even after the formal segment of the gathering has concluded.

Today, one such moment occurred after the “official” part of our gathering had ended.

During the message, I discussed the transformation of Abram and Sarai by God, who reshaped them into new beings, reflected in their name changes from Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah. God made them anew. They didn’t change themselves. They just believed that God could. They lived in that trust. Similarly, encountering Jesus often entails shedding our old selves to embrace the new creation within us. As the saying goes, “You cannot see God and live” (Exodus 33:20).

While we were packing up—given that we are a nomadic church without a permanent building, setup and teardown occur weekly—Katie D approached me with a poignant illustration of our struggle against shedding our old selves and embracing the new. She referenced a scene from the 1980s movie “Short Circuit.” Here’s the scene:

In this scene, Number 5 perceives disassembly as death. For believers, resurrection signifies that death is not the end. We need not fear “disassembly” because it is not the conclusion but rather the process by which Jesus finalizes the new creation within us. While we may, like Number 5, panic at the prospect of “disassembly,” Jesus disassembles us to conform us to His image. He destroys the strongholds in out lives. He changes the values from which we operate. He changes the way we see and interact with the entire world. Although it may cause disruption, this process is ultimately for our benefit.

This past Sunday at Tapestry I walked our kids, and adults, through a Jesse Tree, discussing how the stories of the Old Testament (and News Testament too) pointed to an understanding of life that led to Jesus and stand as a criticism of the life around us. We put ornaments on the tree and briefly walked through the story the ornament represents and how it tells us about the biblical understanding of the purpose and meaning of our daily experience.

Our stories, traditions, and rituals remind us of the values that we believe are truly important and thereby comment, and sometimes judge, the world in which we live and how we live in it.

Far too often instead of understanding the gospel as good news of the Kingdom of Jesus that sets us free and also establishes a plumb line that shows a better way and sometimes judges, we turn faith into sentimentality, which produces warm feelings but changes nothing.

Nativities and the Christmas story as prime examples of this. When we take the story seriously it makes us question the world around us. How do we respond to God choosing to come as a weak and needy baby? What changes in us and our society when we realize that there was no room for the Holy Family? What should be different in our society when it was the weak and foreigners who recognized and worshipped the Christ Child? How do we respond when we see in the Christmas story that new life was sacrificed in an attempt for the powerful to maintain their kingdom?

But instead, we often just see a sweet, bucolic display of a family as we drink hot chocolate by the glow of the Christmas tree. Our nativities should shake us to our core because when we display them, we are exhibiting a scene that sets a different standard.

This year there is a great example of this in Manger Square in Bethlehem. Most of the festivities of Christmas in Bethlehem have been cancelled this year because of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. By the merry making may have been canceled the religious aspect of the celebration has not – in fact, many churches in Bethlehem have experienced significantly higher attendance than normal. In the midst of Manger Square is just one display this year and it is a Nativity that critiques the current situation. It shows the Holy Family in the midst of rubble. It says that the current situation is not the way of Jesus, another way is possible because of what actually began when the Holy Family could find no room and our Savior was born and placed in a trough.

i placed a video at the top of this post a video of the creche in Manger Square.

Over the past few years, I have learned to really love The Holy Post podcast. I not only am challenged by the guests that they bring on but I also really enjoy the hosts’ interactions with each other. In this week’s episode, they interview Dr. Matthew Demond, whose book “Evicted” I found very influential in the way I view poverty and housing. He was interviewed to discuss poverty based on his new book “Poverty in America.” I found the interview very enlightening and particularly liked the 5 specific actions he ended with. These are actions we all can take. He explains them in the interview so I am just listing them below.

• First, you can flex your influence wherever you are.
• Second, we can vote with our wallet, we can shop a bit differently,
• Third, let’s talk about taxes differently.
• Fourth, let’s play our role in ending segregation.
• Fifth, join the anti-poverty movement.

I definitely don’t have the answer to poverty but personally, I would rather make a mistake doing something rather than make the mistake of doing nothing. I like Desmond’s five suggestions because they are actions that anyone can do and they also recognize that our actions while probably a part of the problem can also be a part of the solution.