Tag: faith hope and love
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Studying Hebrews 11 1-3, 8-16
Hope and faith are intertwined in Hebrews 11:1-3 and 8-16, which we are studying for Sunday, August 8. [Some questions about the text are here.] Here are a very few notes on this text: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT: From past studies of Hebrews we may remember that this book is a late first century text, composed…
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Reflecting on Romans 10 5-17
What is the hope that Paul presents in this text – and are there any limits to it? We might wonder about this as we are studying Romans 10:5-17 for Sunday, August 1. [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are some questions we might ask ourselves, or want to discuss in class: In…
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Studying Romans 10 5-17
What is at stake for Paul, and for us, in Romans 10:5-17, the text we are studying for Sunday, August 1? In line with the summer’s overarching theme of “confident hope,” we could say it’s Paul’s hope for the salvation of Israel, which is the explicit concern of Romans 9-11. But upon reflection, we could…
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Reflecting on Romans 1 8-17
We are studying Romans 1:8-17 for Sunday, July 11 – a text that comes almost at the beginning of Romans, as the beginning of a series of four lessons from the book of Romans. [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are some questions we might want to ask ourselves or discuss in class:…
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Studying Romans 1 8-17
We are studying Romans 1:8-17 for Sunday, July 11. It’s the first of four lessons we have from Romans, in this quarter titled “Confident Hope,” which seems mostly to be about faith. Faith and hope are connected, of course, so maybe the editors were “justified by faith being connected to hope” in calling it what…
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Reflecting on Matthew 9 18-26
We are studying Matthew 9:18-26 for Sunday, June 21. This is Matthew’s version of Jesus’s healing of a woman with a hemorrhage, and restoring the life of a little girl. [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are some questions we might want to consider in our study or discussion: Matthew’s version of this…
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Acceptance, Thankfully
Churches, like other organizations these days, have “retreats” and “planning meetings” and “visioning sessions.” Meetings where members get together and reflect on what seems to be going right and not right and where that seems to be headed, and in the case of the church, where God seems to be calling people. Our congregation has…
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The Same Old Thing
Our church wants to be able to say “we are welcoming and affirming,” and mean it. On the whole, this feels like a good thing to me, especially since it is often true. I’ve begun to learn that I have enough reservations about the project and the way we’re going about it to fill a…
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Shaking Things Up
People can get stuck thinking they have understood God, but the Holy Spirit shakes things up. Fortunately, since we seem to need shaking up. We seem to have a tendency to get comfortable with the wrong things. Our pastor pointed out on Sunday that the lectionary reading for the Sixth Sunday of Easter this year…
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Studying Isaiah 29 15-24
We are studying Isaiah 29:15-24 for Sunday, May 9. The text is a prophetic poem that seems to speak to – but perhaps also beyond – the dire situation of the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. [Some questions on the text are here.] Here are my notes on this text: BACKGROUND…
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Continuities
Our wonderful pastor was called away, along with her family, to celebrate the life and mourn the death of a dear family member. Hence this sermon, based on Acts 4:32-35: We don’t actually know a lot about the earliest church, the earliest Christians. Yes, there are whole large sections in libraries about life in the…
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New Life
A sunny day, not too chilly. Some of us didn’t even need our coats. Birds singing all around. And people singing, too, albeit behind masks. Brilliant flowers from someone’s garden – already?! – around the base of the ancient pulpit that’s really more of a podium, the one from the old church (no, the one…
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Reflecting on Joshua 5 13 – 6 27
We are studying selected verses from Joshua 5:13-6:27 for Sunday, March 14. This is the story of “the Battle of Jericho” at the beginning of the Israelite conquest of Canaan. It’s a rich text, but also a difficult one in a lot of ways, that puts a lot of pressure on some of our unexamined…
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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.
Matters of Interpretation 