Today, we minister to a wonderful generation of people in search of salvation. Does the church’s traditional teaching respond to these seekers? If framed by a theology of atonement created in the Middles Ages, I don’t think so.

A couple of years ago, our Worship Committee and I started a new Easter tradition at Immanuel in McLean: the blooming cross. I learned about such things when Judith and I served a congregation in North Carolina. If you have never tried one in the congregation you serve or attend, let me recommend it to you highly.

Next week I’m attending the Festival of Faith & Writing at Calvin College. It’s a literary feast, with appetizers, main courses, and desserts all concocted from words. The theme is always this: where do your faith and your words intersect?

“‘Life with most teenagers was like having a low- grade bladder infection. It hurt, but you had to tough it out.’” Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds, as quoted in The Washington Post, 7 April 2010, C4.

When we read that quote from a review of Lamott’s latest book, we burst out laughing. Our 17 and a half year-old asked what was so funny and so we read her the quote. She didn’t think it was very hilarious but then that is the nature of adolescence: your parents are weird and they know nothing.