The description of this blog mentions that, from time to time, it may include music – my first calling, principle medium of meditation, and chief psycho-emotional therapy. Below is a link to a video recording of a recent performance of “When You Wish Upon a Star” by Continue reading A Musical Interlude: “When You Wish Upon a Star”
Faith Must Take Root
Now, concerning the (seed) sown on rocky ground: it is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, but it does not take root. It is temporary. When trial or persecution comes because of the word, it causes that one to stumble immediately (Matt 13:20-21)
I wonder whether it is more accurate to describe the church today as shrinking or to appeal to the old distinction between the “visible” and the “invisible” church invoked frequently during the Reformation. Then, it referred to the supposed distinction between the members of an institutional church, which may include some who have not truly taken up Continue reading Faith Must Take Root
On Wasting an Opportunity to Learn
“The one persecuting us then, now preaches the faith he destroyed” (Gal 1:23)
Listening to the current public debate about the proper course of action to be taken by or regarding the governor and the attorney general of Virginia, both of whom admit to having worn black-face in the 1980’s, I am struck by a failure to examine the situation in terms of the complex history of white culture in the South in the era immediately following the huge Continue reading On Wasting an Opportunity to Learn
Misconceptions Concerning the Arab/Israeli Conflict and the Bible
Misconceptions continued (Lecture 4, final)
First Presbyterian Church, Richmond VA, Fall 2018
Misconceptions continued (Lecture 3)
Misconceptions continued (lecture 2)
Misconceptions concerning the Arabi/Israel Conflict and the Bible
Hungering and Thirsting for Rightness
Matt 5:6
As naturally as apple trees bear apples, righteous people do the right thing. Indeed, citizens in the Kingdom of God, justified (made right) by the grace of God through Jesus, will seek out wrongs to make right.
English translations typically translate the Greek and Hebrew nouns dikaiosune and tsedeqah with “righteousness” and related adjectives with “righteous.” Unfortunately, centuries of usage in the contexts of piety and spirituality have given these terms the patina of interiority and other-worldliness. One hears them as references to purely Continue reading Hungering and Thirsting for Rightness
The Mistranslated Gospel
This entry initiates a series that will examine the nuances of important concepts in Christianity as represented by the pertinent terms used in the Bible. In general, words are astonishingly slippery. They have connotations: although skinny and slender, for example, denote virtually the same condition, they do not communicate the same thing when Continue reading The Mistranslated Gospel
Ordination
A Protestant View of “Apostolic Succession”
Does the validity of ordination depend upon the status of the “ordainer”? A former student of mine and current reader of this blog has asked me to advise her on this question, which, in turn, a friend of hers posed to her. She acknowledges that, while she has her own convictions on the matter, she cannot substantiate them with detailed arguments. The Continue reading Ordination