Month: August 2021
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Guilt
Be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves James 1:22 Have you ever just not wanted to do something right then? I was sitting in my chair, doing my morning reading, snuggled in a blanket for the first time this season with my feet propped up and the little dogs in […]
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Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Call to Worship [Based on James 1:17-27] God’s good gifts surround us:the world, and all that is in it;sky and clouds, trees and birds, fields and gardens, brilliant summer flowers,each person we meet,each child of God.God’s truth, God’s word, calls each of usinto God’s goodness, into life.God, the beginning of light, dwells in light,lights the […]
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Shabbat shalom
Actually there is no such thing as seeking God, for there is nothing in which He could not be found. Martin Buber, I and Thou, Translated by Ronald Gregor Smith, Scribner Classics, 2000 (1956), 81. Image: Detail of an image of the stained glass work in Hadassah Hospital, Ein Kerem, Israel, “The Tribe of Levi,” […]
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Reflecting on 2 Corinthians 4 16 – 5 10
What gives us our ultimate hope? In 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10, Paul affirms his confident hope in the reward of eternal life, as promised by God and sealed in the Spirit, that comes from faith in and service to Jesus Christ. We are studying this text for Sunday, August 29. [Here are some notes on the […]
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Studying 2 Corinthians 4 16 – 5 10
We are winding up our summer study of “hopeful” texts with 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10, Paul’s emphatic statement of hope for what cannot be seen in preference to what can, the text we’re studying for Sunday, August 29. Here are some notes [and some questions are here] on that text: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT: As we might […]
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A lot to think about
Whenever an author writes anything, it’s the author who chooses the words, the language. Well, more or less, depending on what that author has to choose from. An author who only speaks English can’t choose words that aren’t available in English. And then, if the author wants the writing to mean anything to anyone, she […]
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Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Call to Worship [Based on Psalm 84] How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!Come to beauty, whoever is faint and longing;How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!Come to beauty, whoever knows joy and peace;How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!Come to beauty, whoever trusts God’s strength;How […]
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Shabbat shalom
If you explore the life of things and of conditioned being you come to the unfathomable, if you deny the life of things and of conditioned being you stand before nothingness, if you hallow this life you meet the living God. Martin Buber, I and Thou, Translated by Ronald Gregor Smith, Scribner Classics, 2000 (1956), […]
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Reflecting on 1 John 4 & 5
Do we ourselves still need to “test the spirits” today? When? How do we make use of the test proposed by the author of 1 John: the confession that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? That might be the first set of questions raised by 1 John 4 & 1 John 5 (specifically, 1 […]
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An Evidence Problem
Professor Jerry Coyne, author of Why Evolution is True, recently asked the people of faith who correspond with him from time to time to say what evidence they would accept for the non-existence or non-reality of God. His point is that he’s able to say what evidence he would accept for the existence or reality […]
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Wisdom Personified
Now that we are reading Ecclesiastes in Wednesday night book study, this is the kind of email we’re getting, Because everybody knows …
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Studying 1 John 4 and 5
We will be thinking about testing the spirits and overcoming the world this week, as we are studying some verses from 1 John 4 (specifically vv 2-3 & 13-17) and 1 John 5 (specifically vv 4-5) for Sunday, August 22. [Some questions on the text are here.] Here are a few notes on this text: […]
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A gloomier perspective
It struck me this afternoon that I have never heard anyone quote Job 3 in connection with the issue of abortion. Though it’s as much a part of the Bible as Jeremiah 1:5 or Psalm 139:14. Images: Albert Anker, “Ältere Frau in der Bibel lesend,” 1904 public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; “Job” by Andreas Neumann-Nochten, […]
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“What It Means”
I’m sitting at the registration desk in the emergency room. The cheerful young lady on the other side of the Plexiglas barrier hands me a sheet of paper with a lot of words on it, and x’s by all the blank lines. “Initial four places and sign once,” she instructs. I skim the paragraphs. “I […]
Matters of Interpretation 