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Full Text Text: Luke 14:1-14 “…The human economy runs on quid pro quo. We buy things to signal status. We look at each other for affirmation of our status. We give and get expecting repayment. Those who can’t repay or can’t help are either in our debt or never considered. But Jesus is . . . → Read More: Status Games Confirmation instruction will be starting up again. This year is the church doctrine year, and while the doctrine is not all ethics, church doctrine helps us answer the question of how should we live and thrive? This essay is from a Sociology Prof teaching an introductory course that focuses on many of the same . . . → Read More: Teaching Virtue Maybe a little intellectual, but good philosophy. Although I think it was said shorter in a couple of places like: Luke 12:23-25 (“who can add a single hour to his span of life?) or Philippians 1:21-23 or Luke 17:33 or Matt 6:11 (daily bread) or Exod 16:18-20 (the manna only lasts one day) or a . . . → Read More: No Ownership of the Future  Comments are closed  Culture, Revelation  daily bread, natural revelation, philosophy, reason, revelation, theology Here is an essay by the above mentioned Joseph Bottom at First Things. Warning, it is deep and political and not a simple read. Truly about First Things as an American. We come across these hard sayings like, “I’ve not come to bring peace but division (Luke 12:51)” or the refrain “the first will be . . . → Read More: Joseph Bottom has been Listening to the Lectionary… From this article… In our own time, most Christians are in denial about these difficulties. The few contemporary theologians who dare to pronounce on the subject usually shrug it aside with the comment that the existence of intelligent aliens would not pose a problem for Christianity. But it would pose a problem, and a huge one at . . . → Read More: Who’s afraid of ET?  Text: Luke 13:22-30 Full Text I like the word cloud. Grace makes things topsy-turvy. It scrambles our hard won pieties. But thankfully, the narrow door is one opened by grace. A door made of anything else and nobody would be thin enough. The text is interesting to me because of who it appears to be . . . → Read More: The Narrow Door…Big Enough for Everyone Here is a WSJ article about an interesting trip. Here are the author’s ongoing site. a snipet… But we and Luther do share one significant similarity: We’re both living in the midst of a communication revolution. For Luther it was the printing press. He and his followers were able to use pamphlets and ever-cheaper printed books to . . . → Read More: A Thousand Miles in the Footsteps of Martin Luther In writing sermons the cultural references are always tricky. You come embedded with your own, but you are hopefully preaching for an audience that spans WW2 vets (although fewer) to Dora the Explorer Birthday party people. Being attentive here means trying to work in different references and translating if possible (i.e. Capt. Reynolds from . . . → Read More: Old as Dirt (or be sure to update you cultural markers…) That was of course Marshall McLuhan bemoaning the vast wasteland of TV. The more serious point is that particular mediums (TV, books, radio, talking, letters) are not just tubes to deliver something, but they mold or form the message itself. Books are solitary, serious and heavy. TV is fast and visual. i.e. . . . → Read More: The medium is the message Comments are closed Culture, Word Ben Myers, blogging, confession and absolution, life together, Repentance, theology From Ernst Kasemann – “The worship of the Chirstian community should not be dominated by fanatical ecstasy or profound oracle, but by prophecy as a contemporizing of the message of the past. The gospel concretizes and actualizes.” In other words – “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth (John 1:14)…Anyone . . . → Read More: An Incarnate Truth |
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