Month: February 2018
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The Mismeasure of Man
My notes on: Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. Revised edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. [An installment of the “Read Me” Project] The Mismeasure of Man ended up on the “read me” shelf because our daughter had to write a research paper in English her first semester in college, in which she took […]
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[Sort of] Exegetical Exercise (Genesis 22 1-14)
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, March 4 is Genesis 22:1-14. I looked at it, and thought something like … “oh, no.” In part because it was late, but mostly because it was hard. Here are my notes on this text, for what they are worth: First, I didn’t do the translation. Because it was […]
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Second Sunday in Lent
This morning, we thought long and hard about what “the good fight of faith” might actually mean. Our published curriculum said it was the fight against “all that was false,” and we thought that perhaps this amounts to a “fight against ourselves,” in particular because we are often tempted to seek goods other than God, […]
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion (1 Timothy 6 11-21)
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, February 25 is 1 Timothy 6:11-21. Here are some questions we might find it worth considering in class: The text first addresses itself to someone described as a “man of God.” Do we identify with that description, and is the passage an instruction to us? Why, or why not? […]
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Hard-Hearted
This morning’s reading included the story of Jesus walking on the water, as told by Mark (6:45-52) – so, not the one where Peter tries to do it, too, but the one where the disciples are terrified because they think it’s a ghost. This is the second time Jesus has calmed storms on the Sea […]
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Notes on “Tradition in Action”
As I continue slowly wending my way through Awake to the Moment1 in the short breaks between working on class, here are a few summary notes of the first couple of pages in the next chapter, “Tradition in Action”: Tradition needs to be flexible enough to enable its adherents to respond to a changing world […]
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Exegetical Exercise (1 Timothy 6 11-21)
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, February 25 is 1 Timothy 6:11-21. Here are my notes on that text: First Impressions: What is the “all this” that is to be avoided or shunned? (apparently doctrinal disputes and arguments, in particular ones that are oriented towards getting “gain” out of the gospel; “the love of money” […]
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First Sunday in Lent
We are starting to see the sun. In class, we were not sure that the disciples in Joppa expected Peter to do anything miraculous when they sent for him in Lydda. We thought they needed consolation, and were reaching out for pastoral care. And we were not sure that Peter thought he could “do” anything […]
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion (Acts 9 36-43)
The text we’re studying* for Sunday, February 18 is Acts 9:36-43. Here are a few questions that might be worth reflecting on and discussing in class: Why do the disciples in Joppa send for Peter? Why do we think that – from something in the text (what?), from something in our experience, from other readings […]
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Exegetical Exercise (Acts 9 36-43)
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, February 18 is Acts 9:36-43, the story of Tabitha / Dorcas raised from the dead. Here are my notes on that text: First Impressions: although this isn’t a very familiar text, it is one that has come up in the lectionary before; a miracle story, one of the stories […]
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Transfiguration
In class we talked about our speech, and others’. “When you focus on other people, it’s easier to see how wrong they are.” That’s how demagogues operate. But we realize that it goes for us, too – when we focus on other people, it’s easy to see how wrong they are – when they clash […]
Matters of Interpretation 