Tag: Christian values
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Connection – or not
Where does connection come from, really? We sense it. We might describe it as “having something in common,” or “caring about one another,” or “meaning something to each other,” mattering. If we put it that way, then it seems clear that it must grow out of something real. Almost as if it is already there, […]
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Hospitality and Hostility and Wondering About That
Most of us – people, I’m thinking, human beings – are not good at welcoming and condemning at the same time. That sounds obvious, but it was a hard sentence to come up with. Most of us – people, I’m thinking, human beings – don’t think of ourselves as “condemning.” We more often think of […]
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Learning How to Be Small and Unimpressive
In the “society of the spectacle,” according to Guy Debord, whatever appears is real, and whatever is real appears. He didn’t mean it literally, in the sense that mere appearance determines actual reality. He meant it culturally, in the sense that people come to value what is represented, and only what is represented. People ignore […]
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Reversal of Values
People talked less about politics on Sunday morning’s zoom calls than you might have guessed. Mostly we talked about the Bible. So come to think of it, I guess you could say we mostly did talk about politics. The Bible is an intensely political document, in the root sense of that word, as having to […]
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Reflecting on James 2 14-26
We are studying James 2:14-26 for Sunday, August 16 – the source of the often-quoted Biblical saying “faith without works is dead.” [Some notes on the text are here, and here.] We studied this text not too long ago in our class, and the questions on the text at that time remain relevant, but here […]
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Hold Fast to What is [Truly] Good
![Hold Fast to What is [Truly] Good](https://hermeneutrix.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/crop-trinity-college-dublin-reading-room.jpg?w=1016)
Shared with my by a friend: this careful reminder not to be beguiled, but to be steadfast in the face of temptation, and not to conclude that suffering must be good, somehow. Good to have in mind as we head down the road of Holy Week.
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Get New Self Talk
Some people habitually attack themselves. “What are you doing??!” “You idiot!” “Fat. Loser.” “Sometimes I wish I could tear you up in little pieces and start over from scratch you worthless …” Don’t ask me how I know this. And sometimes we can hear something entirely new in a reading from the Bible we have […]
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Help with Difficult Conversations
Stone, Douglas, Patton, Bruce, and Heen, Sheila. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most. 10th Anniversary Edition. Penguin, 1999. [An Installment of the “Read Me” Project.] These reflections on Difficult Conversations are not a commentary on Christmas with the family. It’s a pure coincidence that I got Difficult Conversations on loan from one of […]
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Second Sunday in Advent
For I YHWH love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing … Isaiah 61:8 Our pastor this morning pointed out that in the text of Isaiah 61:1-4, or however many verses people often read in church around this time of year, it’s easy to miss the judgment in those words “proclaim the year of YHWH’s favor.” […]
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – 2 Corinthians 13 1-11
We are studying 2 Corinthians 13:1-11 for Sunday, November 3 (which is also the kick-off for “Golden Rule 2020,” and is All Saints’ Day, and is time change – “fall back” – Sunday). Our text is Paul’s concluding exhortation to the members of the church in Corinth in the early 50s CE to consider what […]
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Study Notes – 2 Corinthians 13 1-11
We are studying 2 Corinthians 13:1-11 for Sunday, November 3. This is the “conclusion” to what we have in our Bibles as the “second” letter to the new church in Corinth, but which seems likely to be a compilation of several letters following the “first” one, which may itself be a collection of more than […]
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Christian Doctrine (17)
Here are my summary notes on Chapter 17 of Christian Doctrine, “Are You a Christian? The Doctrine of Sanctification.” Guthrie starts by quoting Albert Camus, calling on Christians to back up their convictions with action, finishing up with “… if Christians made up their mind to it, millions of voices – millions, I say – […]
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Points of Reference
My grandparents were refugees. From China, technically, because they had left Russia in 1929. They lived in Harbin for two years or so, before they managed to be part of a small group that received a waiver from the US government to enter the country from China. They needed a waiver because of the Chinese […]
Matters of Interpretation 