Phantasmagoric. I only get to use this word infrequently and typically only when discussing Ezekiel. The visions of Ezekiel are truly unlike any visions of his contemporaries. Illusory. Dreamlike. Fantastic. And yet, the phantasmagoric features do not make them false. Perhaps it makes them the most bold among all the proclamations we have from the Biblical Prophets. Ezekiel’s prophetic activity is characterized by Ezekiel’s experience of great turmoil when he and others from Judah were...

Orientation. Often, the first days at a new job or the first days at a new school, a required process of orientation is put in place. The function of the orientation is, quite literally, to “orient” a person to their sense of identity within the new role(s) they will inhabit. The orientation offers explanation, teaching, and guiding parameters on what kinds of actions and intentions are available to a person. If the orientation is to new employment, for example, working as a snow-plow...

If we have been journeying through the Christian year, we sit this week in the middle of the season of Epiphany and not far from the abrupt transition to Ordinary Time. Here in Epiphany we watch God revealing God’s self to foreigners from the east, holding his own as a young boy in conversation with the academics in the Temple, showing up in front of a watching world at Jesus’ baptism. However, as I watch these things unfold, it is not unusual for me to begin to find myself in a somewhat...