Women writers, keep talking to me! I wanted to start my acquaintance with Nadia by reading [b:Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint|17333440|Pastrix The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint|Nadia Bolz-Weber|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1364922240s/17333440.jpg|24064768]. But the copy in my library was checked out. So I began with the available title -- this one.

Are there really churches like this? With a pastor and congregants like this? If so, what good news! I hem and haw a bit about my connection to faith communities because so much pain and misunderstanding festers there. Anyone who's been part of church, or stands close to someone that is, is church-damaged. But Nadia is clear-eyed about such realities and keeps going and pastoring anyway. Why? She believes that even in all the mess and hurt that is church -- made up of messy, wounded people as it is -- in fact, because of it, grace, mercy, and healing happen.

A bit like reading Anne Lamot in that honest, raw, surprising way, so much so that on occasion it was distracting. But I'll get over it. And check out Pastrix when it's back on the shelf. ( )

3.5 stars

A little more sedate than her previous work. What I liked: "The fact is, we are all, at once, bearers of the gospel and receivers of it. We meet the needs of others and have our needs met. And the strangeness of the good news is that, like those in Matthew 25 who sat before the throne and saidHuh? When did we ever feed you, Lord?, we never know when we experience Jesus in all of this. All that we have is a promise, a promise that our needs are holy to God. A promise that Jesus is present in the meeting of needs and that his kingdom is here. But he's a different kind of king who rules over a different kind of kingdom. Being part of Christ's bizarro kingdom looks more like being thirsty and having someone you don't even like give you water than it looks like polishing your crown."

"Your weakness is fertile ground for a forgiving God to make something new and make something beautiful."

"...when the math doesn't work, we are walking in a place outside of logiic and cause and effect. Some people call that Holy Ground. We come dangerously close to spiritual self-flattery when we say, God used me to do something." But perhaps the opposite is true. We flatter ourselfes just as much when we claim that we can't do the hard things God sets before us."

"Good Friday is not about us trying to 'get right with God.' It is about us entering the difference between God and humanity and just touching it for a moment." ( )

I needed the raw honesty of this book. We've needed her voice. ( )

Another keeper from the author of [b:Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint|17333440|Pastrix The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint|Nadia Bolz-Weber|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1364922240s/17333440.jpg|24064768]. This one is a collection of reflections on a variety of subjects, illustrated by her experiences with her congregation at House for all Sinners and Saints in Denver.
I appreciate the honesty of her writing; her raw, confessional tone has a powerful effect on me.
I highlighted a lot while I was reading; here are a few favorite passages:

Maybe Jesus was simply blessing the ones around him that day who didn't otherwise receive blessing, who had come to believe that, for them, blessings would never be in the cards. I mean, come on, doesn't that just sound like something Jesus would do? Extravagantly throwing around blessings as though they grew on trees?

And this is it. This is the life we get here on earth. We get to give away what we receive. We get to believe in each other. We get to forgive and be forgiven. We get to love imperfectly. And we never know what effect it will have for years to come. And all of it...all of it is completely worth it

Highly recommended.
( )

Summary:"Bolz-Weber invites readers into a surprising encounter with what she calls 'a religious but not-so-spiritual life.' Tattooed, angry, and profane, this former standup comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the God she feels called to serve. But God keeps showing up in the least likely of people -- a church-loving agnostic, a drag queen, a felonious Bishop, and a gun-toting member of the NRA. As she lives and worships alongside these 'accidental saints, ' Nadia is swept into firsthand encounters with grace -- a gift that feels to her less like being wrapped in a warm blanket and more like being hit with a blunt instrument. But by this grace, people are transformed in ways they couldn't have been on their own. In a time when many have rightly become disillusioned with Christianity, Accidental Saints demonstrates what happens when ordinary people share bread and wine, struggle with scripture together, and tell each other the truth about their real lives."- (Page 4 of cover)

"This is a collection of stories about how liturgy (who would have imagined?), ritual (what?), church (really?), and a bunch of flawed people (like us?) can catch the light of grace and catch fire with the beauty of God. For so many reasons, you really should read it." (Brian D. McLaren)

"Unflinchingly Honest (and Funny)...You don't have to be religious to get something out fo this boos." (NPR's Best Books of 2015))

Compulsively readable...[Bolz-Weber's] love for God and for humankind shines through on every page." (Publisher's Weekly)

"Wickedly funny and painfully vulnerable, theologically nuanced and lyrically sonorous. [Bolz-Weber's] voice communicates the scandal of the Christ and the sacraments of his church with more force and vitality than most writers can hope to summon." Christian Century.