John Shelby Spong on a Sunday morning ....

I miss the late John Shelby Spong, among the most liberal thinkers within the Episcopal Church and retired bishop of Newark, who died at 90 during 2021.

So here are a couple of Spong quotes for a Sunday morning in troubled times that illustrate his perspective.

First of all, "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. I honor my tradition, I walk through my tradition, but I don't think my tradition defines God. I think it only points me to God."

And then this: "I do not think of God theistically, that is, as a being, supernatural in power, who dwells beyond the limits of my world. I rather experience God as the source of life willing me to live fully, the source of love calling me to love wastefully and to borrow a phrase from the theologian, Paul Tillich, as the Ground of being, calling me to be all that I can be."

Have a thoughtful Sunday!