Last year, my Bible study group made a special study of Luke chapters 1 and 2. We started with the angel announcing the birth of John the Baptist and went all the way to the story of 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple; it took us several months. One rather special feature of these chapters is…
I would recognize their handwriting anywhere. Right beside Numbers 18, where God is instructing Aaron on how the tribe of Levi needs to keep itself separate, there’s a vertical note to look up the Catholic interpretation in my dad’s distinctive scrawl. And adjacent to Deuteronomy 1:6, after the description of Yahweh, “who brought you out…
Mary spins and the thread twists / at just the right moment. / The tension tight, she winds it / on the shaft and then smoothly presses another bit of wool, / pinches the thread, sees it wind into true.
It’s that most wonderful time of year! The time to tune your car radio to Christmas songs and get a headstart on the holiday cheer. Maybe you’re groaning, but I love the final six weeks of the year, when we get to deck the halls and be merry! I also deeply appreciate Advent, including the…
I spent time with a crying woman at the bank the other day. She is what I imagine Mary, the mother of Jesus, was like. As we got out of our respective cars, she recognized me. She wanted to talk “church.” We weren’t in the conversation for more than 60 seconds when tears filled her…
A city and tow’r, whose top may reach Heaven;And get themselves a name, lest far dispersedIn foreign lands their memory be lostUpon their tongues a various spirit to razeQuite out of their native language, and insteadTo sow a jangling noise of words unknown:Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loudAmong the builders; each to other callsNot understood,…
Since I was a child I have been fascinated by those extra books found in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, known to Protestants as the Apocrypha. These include Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, 1 and 2 Maccabees and some additions to the books of Esther and Daniel as found…
In the preface of God Who Became Bread, Emily Wierenga writes, “I pray you’ll become glutted on God’s goodness, then turn and feed this living Bread to a very hungry world.” This is precisely what God Who Became Bread, accomplishes. The book transforms the concept of living Bread into something tangible, igniting a passion for…
My favorite image of Jesus has always been “The laughing Jesus.” It was originally drawn by Canadian Willis Wheatley, a member and employee of the United Church of Canada. The image celebrated its 50th birthday in 2023. This image of Jesus stretches viewers to appreciate the full humanity of Christ. And it stretches us to…
“I don’t want to see anyone leave,” one synodical delegate said of the motion to suspend dissenting churches and office-bearers, “but as Abraham was asked to offer up Isaac in obedience to faith, I see this as an act of obedience to faith.” Hearing this analogy reminded me of a college student who was struggling…
Many Christians know firsthand the challenges that come from studying scripture and the concern of interpreting it accurately. Questions arise as a reader tries to piece together the dense and rich information of the text, and these questions many times are not answered so simply on a Sunday morning. The BibleProject podcast excels at tackling…
“Fittingness,” surprisingly, is in the dictionary. I learned the word five decades ago in Dr. Nicholas Wolsterstorff’s Aesthetics course. It was key to his definition of beauty. Beauty and society are based on fittingness. We are defined by our relationships; our relationship to God, the world, and each other based on being in the image…
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