The Christian knows to serve the weak not because they deserve it but because God extended his love to us when we deserved the opposite. Christ came down from heaven, and whenever his disciples entertained dreams of prestige and power he reminded them that the greatest is the one who serves. The ladder of power reaches up, the ladder of grace reaches down.

I would far rather convey grace than explain it.

God formed an alliance based on the world as it is, full of flaws, whereas prayer calls God to account for the world as it should be.

What would a church look like that created space for quietness, that bucked the celebrity trend and unplugged from noisy media, that actively resisted our consumer culture? What would worship look like if we directed it more toward God than toward our own amusement?

Sometimes I feel like the most liberal person among conservatives, and sometimes like the most conservative among liberals.

Grace is the most perplexing, powerful force in the universe, and, I believe, the only hope for our twisted, violent planet.

Whatever else it is, the kingdom of God is decidedly not a call to violent revolution.