North Carolina has just become the 30th state to enshrine the definition of marriage as one man and one woman in the state constitution. I am pleased by the outcome, but dismayed by the process and the rhetoric.
In the local newspaper, proponents and opponents of the marriage amendment lobbed scriptures back and forth as if a couple of verses settled the matter. That’s wrong for at least three reasons. Continue reading
Some people go to church week after week and often leave vaguely unsatisfied. Some people, when a famous preacher rents a stadium or coliseum, will drive many miles to attend the meeting. Does everyone leave happy and satisfied? Is that even the point?
What do we want from a church service or other similar gathering? Is what we want the same thing Jesus wants to offer?
The Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (ca. 1413)
Jesus hadn’t intended to minister to a crowd. Continue reading
In an earlier post, I wrote of the struggles I used to have with the meaning of praise. From the opening of Psalm 66, I explained both my problem and what I came to learn about it.
When in v. 5 of the same psalm David writes, “Come and see what God has done,” he turns his focus from telling God how wonderful he is to reminding those who sang it of a familiar and beloved story.
Worshiping the golden calf, as in Exodus 32:1-35, illustration from a Bible card published 1901 by the Providence Lithograph Company
The escape from Egypt through the sea and entrance into the Promised Land through the Jordan River at flood stage formed the backdrop for the Jews’ entire national and religious identity.
In the same way, Christians look back to the birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. We are invited to identify with them as if we were there at the manger, in the towns and villages where Jesus ministered. Continue reading
Light of the World / William Holden Hunt (1853)
The risen Lord can’t be a historical character that we read about, but a person whom we know as much or better than any other person we know. We can’t see him. We can’t touch him. We can’t hear the sound of his voice. How, then, do we know that we know him? Continue reading
I raise my eyes to the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. — Psalm 121:1-2 (HCSB)
“I can see the mountains very dimly!”
This picture was also taken from eastern Colorado, but we traveled for hours from Bennett before the mountains looked this close.
My little brother’s excitement woke the whole family after what had been a very difficult night. It became the turning point of our trip to California.
My father had accepted a visiting professorship at the University of California and decided to buy a trailer. The plan was to take a leisurely trip from the flat lands of northwestern Ohio and then explore California on weekends.
So far, it had seemed like a bad plan. Continue reading
Women at the empty tomb, by Fra Angelico, 1437-1446.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ closed the era of law and opened the era of grace. Some Christians still haven’t caught on. No wonder the world hasn’t.
Under law, people must obey or face punishment. Old Testament law defined God’s will so stringently that no one could possibly live up to it. Some people thought they kept the law and harshly judged others. Failing to keep love, they failed to keep the law. Very likely others recognized the impossibility of ever being “good enough” and gave up in despair. Certainly many figured out some decent minimum observance and hoped God would be satisfied.
What do we find in the church today? Continue reading
Judas Iscariot (right), retiring from the Last Supper, painting by Carl Bloch, late 19th century
Surely everyone knows that Judas, one of the Twelve, accepted 30 pieces of silver from the temple treasury to betray Jesus. He attended the Last Supper with the rest, left early, and led a large armed group to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was arrested. After Jesus was sentenced to death, Judas threw the money back at the priests and committed suicide.
For centuries, many in the church have regarded Judas simply as the most despicable traitor in history. Even today, some writers seem to assume that he was a hypocrite who intended to betray Jesus from the start, Continue reading
In John 8, Jesus had a heated discussion about his ministry and credentials with Jewish leaders in the temple. He left, noticed a man born blind, and healed him. It was the Sabbath, so the leaders who were offended at him before became more offended and took out their frustration on the formerly blind man. Jesus’ disciples also saw the blind man, but they took it as a springboard for a theological discussion about sin (John 9:1-7). Has the church to this day understood what Jesus said and did?
Healing of the Blind Man / by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308-11)
A blind man sat near the entrance to the temple. He had been blind from birth and could support himself only by begging. If people pitied him, they tossed some change to him. Maybe a few people even stopped to chat for a while. But basically, nearly everyone passed by.
Back in the days when people hadn’t forgotten that sin is real and has real consequences, it seemed obvious that the man was under some kind of judgment for being blind. The disciples only asked a question out loud that many people must have wondered over the years: was the man born blind because he sinned? But how could anyone sin in the womb? Or perhaps was he born blind to punish his parents for some sin? Continue reading
Wait a minute! Daniel was in the Old Testament and Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer in the New Testament? What does Daniel have to do with that?
In many churches, maybe most churches, the congregation recites every Sunday. Everyone has it memorized from the familiar King James translation. It is one of the few parts of today’s services where the language hasn’t been updated. It takes less than a minute. How many people actually pray it? Daniel did, as recorded in Daniel 9.
The Lord's Prayer, in Gregorian chant notation
Jesus gave the church a model prayer, not merely to be words to memorize. It is like scales in music: a beginning point for practice, not a completed project. Now that we all have it memorized, we can use it in our personal quiet time by thinking through each clause in turn, praying whatever comes to mind. That can easily fill up an hour.
There are undoubtedly many ways to approach the Lord’s prayer as a model. Continue reading
Death Valley, California
The season of Lent recalls Jesus’ 40-day temptation in the wilderness. All Christians sooner or later go through their own spiritual wilderness. And so, in the Old Testament, did one of the Sons of Korah, who left behind Psalms 42 and 43to instruct and comfort us in our own struggles with wilderness experience.
These two psalms appear to have been originally one song of three verses with refrain: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (I use “verse” in the sense of familiar songs or hymns, not in the sense of a verse of scripture.) Continue reading
