Category Archives: Isaiah

Revelation Surrounds Us

Isa 40:21-31

A sermon preached to the congregation of Ginter Park Baptist Church, Richmond VA 2/7/21

Light to the Nations

Isa 42:1-9

A sermon preached at Ginter Park Baptist Church, Richmond VA 1/12/20

A Couple More – Isa 11:1-10

A sermon preached at Ginter Park Baptist Church, Richmond VA, 12/8/19

Up a Couple of Steps (Isa 2:1-5)

A sermon preached at Ginter Park Baptist Church, Richmond VA 12/1/19

All Things New – Isa 65:17-28

A sermon preached at Ginter Park Baptist Church, Richmond VA 11/17/19

A Series of Biblical Vignettes A Propos Pledging Allegiance

“Seek the welfare of the city” (Jer 29:7)

Christian proponents of a variety of doctrinal statements, ethical stances, and public policy positions often proclaim their viewpoints “biblical” either because they assume that the status quo ante must represent the divine will or because their position seems best to reflect a single biblical passage or a small grouping of passages. One could argue that, Continue reading A Series of Biblical Vignettes A Propos Pledging Allegiance

Dry Bones

Ezek 37:1-14

Many know the Old Testament lectionary reading for this coming Sunday, the fifth Sunday in Lent, through the familiar spiritual. Slaves in the American South clearly heard in Ezekiel and his visions of a wheel and a valley of dry bones a promise of God’s power to bring life out of death, freedom out of slavery. The passage finds its place in the common Continue reading Dry Bones

Q&A: Intergenerational Guilt

Exod 20:5-6; Deut 5:9-10

A reader and long-time friend emailed me this week with a question concerning the statement in the Decalog that God “visits the iniquities of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate [God]” (Exod 20:5; Deut 5:9; my translation; cf. also Exod 34:6-7; Deut 7:9-10; Jer 32:18; and Ps 105:8=1 Chron 16:15).  On its face, this Continue reading Q&A: Intergenerational Guilt

“In whom I am well pleased”

Mark 1:11; Matt 3:17; Luke 3:22

As I write, it is Tuesday of Holy Week and the world seems to be coming apart all around me – terrorism in Belgium, turmoil in American politics, and troubled people on every horizon.  People want political answers to what they perceive to be political threats; they want forceful measures to deal with destructive forces.  People are angry and afraid.  Can

Continue reading “In whom I am well pleased”

“Outside Agitators”

In the previous entry in this blog, I argued that the most profitable approach to reading prophetic literature involves a variety of “pattern recognition.”  Yesterday, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, I took the opportunity to re-read Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” his famed “I Have a Dream” speech, and the concluding chapter of his

Continue reading “Outside Agitators”