Quote of the Day (Barbara Brown Taylor, on the Church’s ‘Bards and Poets’)

“One way or another, the church will always protect her bards and poets — those people who can say what we all know is true but who can say it so beautifully, so memorably, that we all hush to hear them.” —Barbara Brown Taylor quoted in Mark Oppenheimer, “Beliefs: Festival Draws Stars of Christian Preaching (Not as Seen on Television),” The New York Times, June 7, 2014

Quote of the Day (Barbara Brown Taylor, on God Not Conforming to Expectations)

“Disillusioned, we find out that God does not conform to our expectations. We glimpse our own relative size in the universe and see that no human being can say who God should be or how God should act. We review our requirements of God and recognize them as our own fictions, things we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel safe or good or comfortable. Disillusioned, we find out what is not true and we are set free to seek what is—if we dare— to turn away from the God who was supposed to be in order to seek the God who is.” —Barbara Brown Taylor, God in Pain: Teaching Sermons on Suffering (1998)

Quote of the Day (Barbara Brown Taylor, on a ‘Life of Repentance and Return’)

“Those of us who have committed ourselves to a life of repentance and return will not give up on ourselves, no matter how many times we have to repeat the process. We will keep telling the truth and turning around, every day if need be. We will never say never (I’ll never recover, I’ll never get it, I’ll never learn). Why? Because we believe in God’s goodness more than we believe in our own badness.”— Barbara Brown Taylor, God in Pain: Teaching Sermons on Suffering (1998)

Quote of the Day (Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, on ‘Practicing Faith’)

“Practicing faith is not the same as earning salvation or winning God’s love. It is slow work for those already committed to lives that take lots of practice. We start here in worship, which we do with other people. We take aim together rather than hit the bull’s eye alone.”-- Rev.  Barbara Brown Taylor, quoted in Mary Lee Talbot, “Practicing Faith Is Not the Same as Earning Salvation” (“Morning Worship” column), The Chautauquan Daily, July 16, 2012