Month: April 2018
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Hello, Friend!
A lot of birds have visited the bird feeder outside the office window this spring, more than usual, for who knows what reason. We’ve attracted a brown-headed cowbird (not necessarily something to celebrate, but what can you do), and we’ve had a towhee hanging around, which in years past we’ve only ever seen in the […]
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Fifth Sunday of Easter
In class, after we listened to Handel, we ended up talking about the Trinity. That was a surprise. The Trinity is in Revelation 5, as one of my seminary professors used to say, “in kit form” – because it refers to the “one seated on the throne,” who we know is the Lord God, the […]
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Revelation 5 6-14
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, April 29 is Revelation 5:6-14. Here are some questions we might (or might not) want to consider in class: In v4, John weeps because no one can open the scroll that we understand to contain God’s plan for creation. Why, do we think? Would we (or do we) want […]
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Maybe Not the Smartest Group
There’s a text critical issue in Judges 7:4-6 – the story of who God picks to go with Gideon to attack the Midianites! It turns on what it means to “kneel” and “lap like a dog.” Different versions, it turns out, resolve it differently. NRSV makes the “lappers” out to be the ones who put […]
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On Reading Revelation “Literally”
Reading Revelation seemed to bring up many more questions or difficulties than usual in our class. These questions seemed to revolve around the problem of “how exactly are we supposed to read this,” which flows into “how exactly are we supposed to read the Bible”? We usually, it seems, assume we’re on the same wavelength […]
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Notes on Revelation 5 6-14
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, April 29 is Revelation 5:6-14. This continues John’s vision of heaven and “what must take place after this” (Rev. 4:1) that began with the description of the heavenly worship that we read last week in chapter 4. If this were a stage play, we would still be looking at […]
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Fourth Sunday of Easter
[A sermon delivered at a small Southern Indiana church] The NT reading this morning is Revelation 4. It’s the opening of the vision of heaven reported by the author we know as John in the book we know as “Revelation.” That word in Greek is “apocalypse,” a word that means “uncovering,” so the image there […]
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Revelation 4
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, April 22 (Earth Day) is Revelation 4. Here are some questions we might (or might not) want to consider in class: In v1 the author sees a door standing open in heaven. If we saw something like that, how would we feel – e.g., curious, frightened, excited, other – […]
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Around “A Bigger Table”
[Sharing reflections on John Pavlovitz. A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017.] The adult class at our church has been reading and discussing A Bigger Table by John Pavlovitz for the past several weeks. Pavlovitz “went viral” in 2014, with his blog post “If I Have […]
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Notes on Revelation 4
The Uniform Series text for Sunday, April 22 is Revelation 4. (Actually, it’s Revelation 4:1-6, 8-11, but honestly, why bother leaving out verse 7?) Here are my notes on the text: Background and Context: Historically, the book of Revelation looks to be from not before 64 CE, and not really later than 90 CE or […]
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Third Sunday of Easter
It is a gray, rainy day in southern Indiana, with LOTS of birds about. In class this morning, we agreed that John 21:15-25 has something to do with Jesus setting Peter up to be “head of the church” going forward. But we wanted to see more than that historical or traditional message. Because everyone seemed […]
Matters of Interpretation 