In 2023, Lord, open the eyes of our hearts
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In 2023, Lord, open the eyes of our hearts

The title character of the British comedy-drama Doc Martin is a successful vascular surgeon in London whose career is derailed because he develops hemophobia, an extreme irrational fear of blood. He is forced to take up a humbler vocation as a village General Practitioner in the fictional seaside Cornish village of Portwenn (Port Isaac).  Until…

Why I am no longer a Christian anti-Zionist
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Why I am no longer a Christian anti-Zionist

My title has a double negative because I am reluctant to call myself a “Christian Zionist.” The overwhelmingly negative connotation of the term “Zionist” today – after the UN General Assembly in 1975 equated Zionism with racism – closes off further conversation, contrary to my hopes for this article. My own view has changed in…

Can We Go Home Again?

Can We Go Home Again?

You can’t go home again is the title of a Thomas Wolfe novel published posthumously in 1940. Since then the line is frequently used as a caution whenever someone longingly and wistfully begins to reminisce about the days of childhood; perhaps when life was thought to be simpler and better. But is this conventional wisdom true? Is it impossible to go home again?

My CLAC Shaving Mug

My CLAC Shaving Mug

The summer I graduated from seminary and was waiting to receive a call from a church, I took a job in landscaping knowing it would likely be the last time I did real work. That’s the peasant-labourer prejudice coming out: “real work” is milking cows, digging ditches, planting and harvesting wheat, driving truck, building a bridge, plumbing a house and planting trees.

Standing between the manger and the cross

Standing between the manger and the cross

The period in the church calendar between Advent/Christmas and Lent/Good Friday/Easter can leave us spiritually somewhat uncertain. Can we learn anything from this “in-between-time”?

‘In the Cross of Christ I Glory’?

‘In the Cross of Christ I Glory’?

The only way to glory in the cross is to glory in God’s love demonstrated on the cross and to return that love to him.

‘On the third day he arose! Undoubtedly!’

‘On the third day he arose! Undoubtedly!’

Theological fashions are like other intellectual fads, they come and go; here today, gone tomorrow. They should not overly occupy our minds or trouble our hearts. One of today’s theological fads, so it seems to me, is doubt. Christian leaders who “out their doubt” are frequently lauded for their courage in being so apparently modest as to say they just don’t know anything for certain anymore.

The audacity of the gospel

The audacity of the gospel

Once again Reformation Day has come and gone. Does it still make sense for us to make a big deal of it in an age of ecumenism and growing inclusion? Would it not be preferable to focus our attention on what unites us as Christians facing an increasingly hostile secular climate rather than to dwell on our differences?