Making Soup
“When I boil these leftover bones / to loosen the flesh and eke out / every bit of gelatinous goodness…”
Making Soup
“When I boil these leftover bones / to loosen the flesh and eke out / every bit of gelatinous goodness…”
How to Visit the Holy Land
“One of my lifelong dreams is to visit the Holy Land!” My wife Karen and I often hear those words when people learn that we lead guided group tours to Israel. For most individuals a visit will be a once in a lifetime experience, and many approach such a trip with a singular purpose in…
Many are called, but few are chosen?
“[God] desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim. 2:4). Having been brought up in a Calvinist home and listened all my life to sermons in Reformed churches, I have grown to believe that only a chosen few will be saved from eternal damnation by the grace…
Abraham’s silence revisited
The voice of God comes to you. Deep in your soul you know that this really is God. You are not given to the religious enthusiasm of “hearing God” speak to you in audible ways, nor do you suffer psychosis. Nonetheless, you have no doubt that this is God’s voice. But the voice says something…
An economy of enough
“Give us this day our daily bread.” – Jesus “I’m suffering from the affliction of always wanting more.”– Singer-songwriter Ann Vriend (a line from the song St. Paul from her album When We Were Spies). The petition in the Lord’s Prayer “Give us this day our daily bread” has always caused me a certain amount…
First and last
We’re in our final few days of the season of Epiphany. A season all about noticing the light that enters our darkness. The light that often seems foreign, so contrary to our way of seeing the world. Jesus told stories to help us picture the light. They usually included something surprising and confusing. Why isn’t…
God, Job and the James Webb Telescope
Early on December 25, 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope launched. While much less significant than the birth we celebrate that day, the launch opens a new era in understanding creation. This telescope is a more complex and powerful successor to the Hubble. It will tell us a lot about our home, the universe God…
Bible | Indigenous | News
Words set free
“Creator’s blessing rests on the ones who are hunted down and mistreated for doing what is right, for they are walking the good road from above.” Can you recognize one of the Beatitudes in that sentence? It’s Matthew 5:10 in The First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament, a dynamic equivalence translation….
Thou shalt not besiege the capital
Freedom. I thought about that word as I was feeding the cows this morning. What is a “freedom rally”? In the Bible, the exodus from Egypt is perhaps the archetype of freedom. Exodus is the story of freedom from slavery, freedom to serve God in the desert. Freedom to forge a new national identity, guided…
The false idol of ‘freedom’
At some point, it became all about “freedom.” I first noticed it about 20 years ago, just after 9/11. George W. Bush was addressing a joint session of congress. Answering why terrorists hate America, Bush said: “They hate our freedoms.” In the 20 years since, protecting “our freedoms” has been the foundation of a lot…
Where Alter’s Psalter falters
Two months ago, I read through Robert Alter’s translation of and commentary on the Psalms, part of a much larger project covering the entire Hebrew Bible. Alter’s insights into the text as well as into the intricacies of the Hebrew language are amazing, the results of patient scholarship and an evident love of scripture. Although…
In praise of small things
In a mega/MAGA world, it is easy to hold up greatness as an ideal. Size matters, we’ve heard, whether it’s the size of our stock portfolio, pickup truck, political rally or congregation. Today I would like to consider the ant. Not, as a guide to industriousness (in Proverbs), but only in terms of its size….
