Month: August 2020
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Prayer. Rhymes with Care.
One thing people do at church is pray for each other. One thing this means is that when you get a call early in the morning to tell you that a family member is unwell in the way that is going to require the kind of major surgical intervention that means everyone in the family…
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Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21
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Shabbat shalom
Learning is not the only way to God. One can also approach God through a life of fervor and exaltation experienced for the sake of heaven; through prayer and joy that transcend everyday existence and transform human suffering by imbuing all of life with hope, purpose, sanctity, thereby raising earth to heaven, restoring the unity…
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Reflecting on James 3 13-18 & 5 7-12
We are studying James 3:13-18 and James 5:7-12 for Sunday, August 30. This is a meditation on the signs of genuine wisdom, and an exhortation to patient endurance. [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are some questions we might want to ask of the text, and ourselves: Verse 13 mentions “the gentleness born…
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A History Book Like I Never Read in School
Our church book group settled on the book Stamped earlier this summer, as a follow-up to our study of Difficult Conversations. We figured reading about race together in our white rural congregation would probably spark a few difficult conversations all by itself, and we wouldn’t even have to do any role playing. Our pastor had…
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Studying James 3 13-18 & 5 7-12
We are studying James 3:13-18 and James 5:7-12 as the conclusion to our study of the book of James as a wisdom text, and also as the conclusion to our “summer of wisdom.” [However, James will be coming up again in the Fall, as the conclusion to 13 weeks of studies on love! Those start…
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Speaking of Intersectionality
Never had thought about this before, but the Canaanite Woman (Matthew 15:21-28) would be an example of “intersectionality.” Our pastor pointed this out last week. OK, more precisely, an example of “someone in an intersectional position.” Because the Canaanite Woman is, obviously, a woman. This meant something in the first century Mediterranean world – in…
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Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost
I give you thanks, O YHWH, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise.… Psalm 138
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Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Yosei ben Kisma said: Once I was on a journey and I encountered a man. We greeted one another. Then he said to me: ‘Rabbi, where are you from?’ I replied to him: ‘I come from a great city of sages and scribes.’ He then said: ‘Rabbi, if you are willing to dwell in…
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Reflecting on James 3 1-12
We are studying James 3:1-12 for Sunday, August 23 – we might call it a text on speech, or perhaps self-expression, probably not “communication,” although we could think about that. Also, a text we studied just a couple of years ago. [Some notes on the text are here, and also here.] We may find the…
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Conditions for Communication
If you speak to people in words they don’t understand, how will they know what you are saying? You might as well be talking into empty space. There are many different languages in the world, and every language has meaning. But if I don’t understand a language, I will be a foreigner to someone who…
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Studying James 3 1-12
We are studying James 3:1-12 for Sunday, August 23. Once again, we studied this particular text in James a couple of years ago. After I reinvented the wheel this time around, I realized that I didn’t have a lot to add to the notes I made at that time, but here is the little that…
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Good news for someone
A wise man scales the city of the mightyand brings down the stronghold in which they trust. Proverbs 21:22
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Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost
She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly. Matthew 15:27-28
Matters of Interpretation 