Tag: commentary
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The Darkest Evening of the Year
science, and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” for the Winter Solstice
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Help with Annotation
Originally published August 12, 2016. It seemed timely once again, alas. Context is everything. “I need your help with annotation.” “What do you have to annotate?” “English.” “What’s the assignment?” “Just to take notes. On Beowulf.”
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The Darkest Evening of the Year
According to timeanddate.com, sunset tonight is 5:27 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, after 9 hours, 30 minutes, and 22 seconds of daylight. That’s 15 seconds more daylight than we had last year on the same momentous occasion. I’m grateful for every extra second. I get this way every year, feeling a deep kinship with those ancient…
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Studying Revelation 7 9-17
We probably don’t often think of God as a rock star. But we might need to start, now that we are studying Revelation 7:9-17 for Sunday, November 7. A central feature of the text is a screaming crowd too large for anyone to count, which would put the average stadium rock concert to shame. Here…
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Studying Psalm 149 and Psalm 150
HALLELUJAH! We all know that much Hebrew – because it IS Hebrew, as is Amen. We’ll have “Hallelujah!” on our minds this week, because we are studying Psalm 149 and Psalm 150 for Sunday, October 31. That’s also Reformation Sunday, for the Protestantly inclined. Here are a few notes on these texts: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT:…
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Studying Acts 2 32-33, 37-47
We will be thinking about what kind of church we have been, and are, and would like to be, as we are studying Acts 2:32-33, 37-47 for Sunday, September 26. [September 26-October 1 is the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom’s Banned Books Week. We’re celebrating by reading the Bible, which showed up on…
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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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Reflecting on Mark 10 46-52
Does Blind Bartimaeus model for us how we ourselves ought to respond to Jesus? We could ask ourselves this, as we’re studying the story of his healing in Mark 10:46-52 for Sunday, September 19. [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are a couple more questions we might want to think about or discuss…
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The Darkest Evening of the Year
Sunset tonight in our neighborhood is 5:26 p.m. – Eastern Standard Time. We will have had 9 hours, 30 minutes, and 7 seconds of [partly nominal] daylight. Tomorrow we will have three or four seconds more of it. And a few more seconds the day after that. I am someone who once received one of…
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Study Notes – Matthew 26 1-13
We are reading Matthew 26:1-13 for Sunday, April 14. This is Matthew’s version of the story of “the anointing woman” or “the anointing at Bethany.” [Discussion questions for this text are here.] Here are my notes on the text: CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND: This is the third in a series of five texts from Matthew’s gospel…
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Christian Doctrine (18)
These are my summary notes [and comments] on Chapter 18 of Shirley W. Guthrie, Jr.’s Christian Doctrine, “Living or Dead? The Doctrine of the Church”: Guthrie begins by observing how much people complain about the church. He agrees the church is “in trouble.” Church numbers are declining and church influence on individuals and society at…
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Hidden Knowledge in the Qur’an
Chapter 1 of Qur’an in Conversation (Michael Birkel, ed.) focuses on the theme of “hidden knowledge” or “hidden meaning” in three significant texts: al-Fatihah (the Opening, sura one, which is recited as part of all five of the daily prayers, so it’s at least as familiar in a Muslim context as the Lord’s Prayer is…
Matters of Interpretation 