Tag: personal responsibility
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To Die For
thoughts on study that finds evidence for a link between political party affiliation and excess death post COVID-19
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Cruelty as Policy
thoughts on reading an article on the history of the child separation policy at the US southern border
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Reflecting on Deuteronomy 16 18-20, 17 8-13
What is entailed, practically, in the pursuit of justice, justice? Especially in our modern context, in which our system of justice is purposely secular, and involves highly trained legal specialists? How are regular people of today supposed to read texts like Deuteronomy 16:18-20 and Deuteronomy 17:8-13, which contain instructions for the ancient Israelites, and their…
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Reflecting on Exodus 23 1-12
The central question of how the laws, the mishpatim, given in Exodus 23:1-12 apply to us, or might, gets us into such deep water that we seem unlikely swim our way out of it by the end of our study on Sunday, January 16. [Some notes on the text are here.] Probably we can all…
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Concern
Our little group of worshipers was about half its usual size yesterday morning. Our local hospital’s COVID wing is full and the county is back “in the red,” and we are an older bunch of folks (Presby-terians, no coincidence), and blessed with lots of underlying conditions, so people exercising additional caution is part of that.…
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Distance
We had class yesterday morning entirely by zoom, which is possible now that we’ve had a global pandemic and all needed to master this technology for remote conversation. I’m glad for that – for the technology, and for the being able to have class, and that people still want to have class when some of…
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Collects
Corporate worship isn’t the only thing people do “at church,” but it is what everyone thinks of as “going to church.” Many, maybe most, people think churches – that is, congregations – mainly are organized for the purpose of conducting regular corporate worship. If, that is, they think much about “the life of the church”…
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Challenge
Jesus tells the rich young man that he still lacks one thing, despite or because of all he has. Jesus offers a remedy: “go, sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and then come, follow me.” The rich young man goes away grieving. Christians, especially us rich ones, have been doing…
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Russell Moore on “Integrity and the Future of the Church”
Here. Aside from the fact that I agree with him, what struck me in particular was that it was in Plough. And that it was Russell Moore. There are all kinds of ways to strike a Constantinian bargain. Images: “Antiquariat saint pierre de clages valais,” (book shop), An image by Lysippos, CC by SA 3.0,…
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Insight
There was an argument, that went on for a long time, between Mary and Martha. “Relax, take it easy, everything is going to be fine.” “We’ve got a lot of work to do, and it needs to be done right, and not at the last minute.” “Worry is a waste of time.” “I’m not worrying,…
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Reflecting on Ezekiel 18 1-9, 30-32
We are studying Ezekiel 18:1-9 and 30-32 for Sunday, May 23. The text is part of an uncompromising statement of God’s concern with individual righteousness or transgression, along with a plea to choose repentance and righteousness, as the way of life. [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are some questions we might want…
Matters of Interpretation 