Tag: spiritual practice
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Taking Forgiveness Seriously
The gospel last week was Jesus’s words to Peter about forgiveness: “not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Or, if we were raised on the KJV, “seventy times seven.” Either way, the main point is: Christians, following Christ, forgive. Or, aspire to. It’s a harder, more complicated lesson than it seems, actually. In the back of…
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Second Sunday After Epiphany
Today was one of those days when a lot of ideas come together. And probably suggest some things I need to do about them … First, we ended up going overtime in the not-that-early class, because of talking about the timeline of ancient Israelite history and its relationship to 1 Kings and the likely time…
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Luke 14 7-14
We are studying Luke 14:7-14 for Sunday, March 3 – a text that presents a pair of Jesus’ short discourses about social propriety, which may have implications for our understanding of the reign of God. [Study notes on the text are here.] Here are a few questions we might want to consider as we explore…
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Going Cold Turkey on the Crazy and Stupid Explanations
Everywhere I go these days – church, school, chorus, the family room, the internet (the internet!), my own head – I hear two explanations for why “they” (whoever “they” are) disagree with “us” (whoever “we” are). “Crazy.” “Stupid.” Or both at once: “Crazy and stupid.” On the rare occasions when I have wandered off into…
Matters of Interpretation 