So, that didn’t take very long did it? Within days, even hours of accomplishing some sort of peace with the Palestinians and Hamas the government of Israel declared another illegal land grab of territory that doesn’t belong to them;the largest such criminal (and recurring) action in 3 decades. The timing was telling and obvious; a chest thumpingly aggressive taunt.
Year: 2014
Why I Don’t Teach “Jesus Died for My Sins”
Atonement & Forgiveness The Bible teaches us that we are good (Genesis 1). We are called to be in a relationship with God and have the capacity to obey and be faithful (Deuteronomy 30 and a good deal of the Old Testament account). Much traditional Atonement theology forgets this! Paul, waxing poetic about Adam and Eve, says we come by our disobedience honestly…it is everywhere in our story. There is no mention of “The Fall” in the Bible
“Following God…and Abandoning”
Here’s a poem that haunts me. It has been on my mind especially as I have been preaching through the book of Jonah this month. In worship we have been living inside this fantastic(al) journey, full of poignant loss, forgiveness, and anger. (I abandoned
Jonah Is (Is) Swallowed Up One Last Time
Religion is remembering; calling back something we didn’t know we knew that grounds us and lends continuity and meaning to our days. (re-“again” legere – “to read”) Violence is forgetting, denying, making discontinuous, or annihilating the past and stripping away identity and the security of the present. By stealing backstory we take away identity and belonging as well as livelihood and safety. What is left is the frighteningly transient quality of the Now,
Naked
Darn wife. It’s Monday morning, and maybe we haven’t slept quite as well as we wish, or maybe the weather is a little cloudy (surprising for a Colorado morning) or just maybe the psychic field is a little “under”…whatever. And she says, apropos of nothing, as we are showered and getting dressed for the day/week/rest of our our lives: “Get up, just go to work, again? That can’t be it…” And the “it” in her sentence is understated in delivery,
3 minutes to reflect
If you aren’t familiar with Spiritbath you might look it up. They are a reliable (and too frequent for my taste) source of inspirational videos and articles, and this brief but surprising vignette came across my desk today. Stretching out into the web can indeed be an edifying thing – not merely entertaining! You don’t need to be a runner to hear in this man’s story a remarkable invitation to listening in our own lives for health and growth. And for looking at others in new ways as well.
Freedom
Freedom to do just anything at all is not our goal. Freedom to act more humanly, more humanely, to act better, is. Freedom is only freedom when it doesn’t create more captivity somewhere else (like in another’s life). Freedom to do anything is mere anarchy, which takes too lightly our ties to one another and the allegiance we pledge to something larger than ourselves.
Can We Be “Chosen” without Being Jerks?
Benjamin Netanyahu is angry with you. The Israeli Prime Minister considers the vote last week at the PCUSA’s General Assembly “disgraceful.” (this was a vote to stop investing in companies making money off Israel’s continued settling in territories reserved for Palestinians.) He said anybody with morals should recognize it as such and at the very least shouldn’t call themselves “Christian.”
Can “Faith Alone” Really Save Us?
Preached Works Righteousness on Sunday. That is, I took permission from Brother James to emphasize the importance of acting on our faith in addition to merely reflecting on it. We place such a high value on education and theology in some circles that our Christian life can get pretty academic. And I love that “academic” is a word denoting great study on the one hand but also can imply “a distinction without a difference” as in: “the point you are adding to the conversation is merely an academic one.” Ouch. James…
Science and Scripture
Insisting we take the Bible literally is a relatively new, and often bad, idea. For the great majority of the Church’s history we let scripture speak to us in rich metaphor and symbol, in evocative, poetic, spiritual and life-changing fashion.