From Dr. Bob Cornwall on the gospel lesson for Pentecost 23C, Luke18:9-14: In light of all that has been happening of late, it might be difficult for some to be sympathetic to the plight of the tax collector. He and his cronies in the government should beg for mercy! Read the whole post!
This is a very interesting Adventurous Lectionary.
We often read the Psalms legalistically, i.e. all the discussion of the law leads us to believe we’re talking about some sort of righteousness by works, or better earning God’s favor through accomplishing certain works. If we read Psalm 1 as a sort of flat discourse rather than as structured poetry, we can easily read…
There are times when I understand why we select verses to read in the Lectionary, and there are times when I don’t. In this case, I don’t. We have James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a. I don’t see adequate reason not to read 3:13 – 4:10 as a whole, and if I were to preach/teach on this passage…
This passage has created quite a few problems over the years. There are women who feel really oppressed by it. Others feel this truly describes the perfect woman and try to get women (and girls) to live up to it. I encountered these various attitudes in a discussion group yesterday. My strong suggestion is to…
Bruce Epperly comments on the lectionary passages for next Sunday (Epiphany 3B), which are extraordinarily well suited for a process theologian. Well worth checking out!
Bruce Epperly has an excellent set of comments on the texts for Advent 1B at Process and Faith. In particular take a look at the discussion of our perception that God has abandoned us in the comments on Isaiah 64. But are we abandoned, and what would it mean? Perhaps, as later Jewish mysticism suggests,…
The whole passage (2 Cor. 5:20b-6:10) is great, but I’m just going to link to a few notes I’ve written on the key verse in 2 Corinthians 5:21. Wright and Piper on 2 Corinthians 5:21 English and Greek Ambiguity – 2 Corinthians 5:21 Becoming Righteous and Becoming Rich Righteousness of God Redux The way you…
In a previous post I mentioned that one problem we have with understanding forgiveness is that we tend to make excuses and to blame others rather than feel guilt on our own account. Everything is OK, and we’re “not too bad.” We also lose the impact of some of the richest texts about salvtion, because…
Darrel Bock (430-433) combines John 3:1-21 into one section, titled “What Do the Signs Show? Jesus and Nicodemus”. John’s next account is of an evening visit by a leader of Judaism. Here, outside the tensions of a public confrontation, in the quiet of table talk, the two eras meet, one old and the other emerging….
