Month: January 2019
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The State of the “Read Me” Project
The New Year’s resolution that gave rise to the Read Me Project – “I am not buying any more books until I have read these” – finally went the way of many New Year’s resolutions.[*] First, there were the free books outside the library. It’s not buying a book when you get an armful of […]
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Study Notes – Philippians 3 7-14
We are studying Philippians 3:7-14 for Sunday, February 3. This is the continuation, and really the culmination, of Paul’s exposition of the mind of Christ in the earlier chapters of this letter to the church in Philippi. It illustrates, as I read it, just how we are to understand the message of chapter 2 and […]
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The Good Kind of Rules
I got to thinking in the middle of the sermon this Sunday: There’s a polarized and polarizing discourse around “rules” or “commandments” and “obedience” in contemporary Christianity. It’s as if, as soon as someone invokes “Biblical standards” or “obedience,” it signals a whole complex of other positions, as does any language about “cultural conditions” or […]
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Third Sunday After Epiphany
When [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of […]
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Philippians 2 1-11
We are studying Philippians 2:1-11 for Sunday, January 27. This is the continuation of Paul’s letter to the Philippians that we began studying last week, and that contains the famous Christic hymn in verses 5-11. Here are a few questions we might want to consider in or before class: Verse 1 invokes “encouragement in Christ, […]
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Study Notes – Philippians 2 1-11
We are studying Philippians 2:1-11 for Sunday, January 27. This is one of the most widely analyzed texts in Christian Scripture, probably because of its significance for foundational Christian theology – the doctrines of the Trinity and Christology – as well as for the life of the Christian community. Here are my notes on the […]
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Upon Noticing the Oak in the Back Yard on a Rain Day
Tangled gnarled branches withered and wavering against the dismal gusts and hardened autumn gaze of gray impassive sky. Long since the clutching leaves were soft and full and warm, long since the shade and sun embraced and dappled earth o’erspread with romping play. No matter when cold still upright stance gives starker notice in advance […]
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All Interpretation, All the Time
One of the insights of hermeneutics is that human beings are doing interpretation all the time. It’s why we can fit in to the “real world” around us. We “read” things correctly, we know what things mean when they present themselves to us in familiar contexts, and know how to respond to them properly. And […]
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Second Sunday After Epiphany
Ice is slippery, and presby* people like our little congregation are fall risks, so we are having a snow – or more precisely, ice – day for the Second Sunday after Epiphany. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Philippians 2:5 So we had church by […]
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Philippians 1 12-21
We’re studying Philippians 1:12-21 for Sunday, January 20. Here are a few questions for the text that we might want to consider before or during class: What do we think Paul means when he says “the brothers and sisters [have been] made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment” (v12)? Can we think of a […]
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Study Notes – Philippians 1 12-21
We and the other users of the Uniform Series are studying Philippians 1:12-21 for Sunday, January 20 – the first week of a three-week focus on Philippians, as a matter of fact. It’s an old joke around my house that my favorite Bible text is the one I’m working on, but honestly, Philippians really IS […]
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Baptism of the Lord and a little more on James 4 1-10
Some last-minute perspective on James 4:1-10 – with respect to pride and humility: It may be worth comparing James on “conflicts and disputes” and on the matter of pride and humility with a story about conflicts and disputes from the history of ancient Israel: Numbers 12. This is the story where Miriam and Aaron criticize […]
Matters of Interpretation 