Tag: honesty
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Studying Job 42 (1-6, 10-17)
We are finishing up our peek into the book of Job, and also our quarter on Biblical perspectives on justice, with a look at the finale, or perhaps the epilogue, of the book: Job’s last word on the subject, and the “restoration of Job’s fortunes.” We are studying Job 42 (selected verses 1-6 and 10-17)…
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Convicted of being powerful?
Tikva Frymer-Kensky reminds us that deception is a necessary tool of the powerless: “The biblical world valued cunning in the underdog. Only the powerful value honesty at all costs.” [emphasis added] Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of their Stories (New York: Schocken, 2002), 19; quoted in Meira Z. Kensky,…
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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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Feels like truth
The human task is threefold. First, the human spirit must connect to the eternal by turning toward God’s immanence and ineffability with yearning. Second, each person must explore the inner reality of his or her humanity facing unmet potential and catastrophic failure with unmitigated honesty and grace. Finally, each one of us must face the…
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30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
This text from 2 Chronicles is not our usual fare. Scholars call the author “the Chronicler,” and have recognized that this author has a distinctive view of the history of ancient Israel, that focuses on Israel’s worship and especially Israel’s worship through the Temple in Jerusalem. In this text, we get our first real glimpse…
Matters of Interpretation 