"If he were a religious man, he would be one of the most truly religious and reverential; he has a very high and noble nature, and better worth immortality than most of us."

I think of God’s extravagance as a blessing for the poor. I hear a song about Jesus rescuing someone from the pit of despair, and I think about the many who had an epiphany, recovered from an extreme crisis like addiction or depression, and went on to bless so many others . . .

This is precisely what we are asked to believe in: a God who is vulnerable, a Savior who empties himself of power and dies on a cross, a Spirit who fashions a people called to risk their lives and reputations for the sake of the hungry, the poor, the helpless, and the hopeless. What a strange religion we profess!