In Two Parts
“Get wisdom, gain insight…” (Prov 4:5, RSV)
The scandal concerning “purchasing” admission to prestigious colleges currently making news (see https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/13/us/what-we-know-college-admissions-cheating-scandal/index.html) constitutes a symptom of the threat that American pragmatism (if it works, it is good), morphed into “careerism,” poses to American Continue reading American Pragmatism Threatens Education
“Remember, you were once in Egyptian bondage…” (Deut 5:15)
“Do this in remembrance of me…” (Luke 22:19)
Remembrance evokes the partner senses of gratitude and humility. In turn, the journey before indicates the direction of the journey ahead.
I am writing this on Ash Wednesday (2019), the day on the liturgical calendar that marks the beginning of the season of Lent, a period of reflection, penitence, and, traditionally, fasting. During Lent, one prepares for the joyous Good News of Easter. In many respects, Lent resembles the Jewish autumn holiday of Succoth, the “Feast of Booths,” which is also Continue reading Remembering, Gratitude, and Direction: A Lenten Reflection
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”
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
“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 continued (Lecture 4, final)
First Presbyterian Church, Richmond VA, Fall 2018
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