In his Easter sermon, our pastor made two especially powerful points. First, he asked for a show of hands of those who could remember 9/11. He continued: Suppose you wrote down your recollection of the basic events of that day, and those accounts were all collected and put in a time capsule. Two thousand years … [Read more…]
He is risen! And, by the way, in the sermon series on Leviticus that our church just finished (see preceding post), it was noted that chapter 11 in this book, on atonement, is at the book’s center. And, for that matter, this chapter is also in the Torah’s/Pentateuch’s center, Leviticus being the middle book. Also … [Read more…]
Our church just finished a sermon series on Leviticus, and in that regard I wanted to share a thought. In the text there are repeated reminders along the lines of “I am the Lord” or “I am the Lord your God” (for example, fifteen times just in chapter 19, according to a study guide). So … [Read more…]
Practicing what I preach, I read Mark daily in January, and on the last day ran across two Greek-English oddities in Mark 16. First, Mark 16:2 begins, “Very early on the first day of the week, [the women] came to the tomb, the sun having risen.” Of course, the “Son” as well as the “sun” … [Read more…]
My sense is that some people like to think that, if they can convince themselves of one inconsistency or inaccuracy in the Bible, then they can reject the Bible (and Christianity) in toto. Maybe this tendency is encouraged by the belief of many Christians in Biblical inerrancy; I don’t know. But the point is this: … [Read more…]
In the last sermon of 2024 at our church, the pastor made what I thought was a good point about the Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20: 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them … [Read more…]
Playwright David Mamet (here) recently had an interesting observation on the Book of Jonah. His synagogue’s congregation was meditating on the book during the recent Yom Kippur; his insight was triggered by remembering Rush Limbaugh’s observation once that, when you’re arguing with someone intransigent, it isn’t necessarily futile, because some third party might be listening: … [Read more…]
I was googling “best gospel books” or something like that and, lo and behold, I found the subject of this blog post, namely Leo Tolstoy’s The Gospel in Brief. My thought then was, well, Tolstoy was one of the great writers of all time, and a committed Christian, and so it would make a lot … [Read more…]
Jesus’ famous dialogue in the synoptic Gospels with the “rich young ruler” is intriguing and was the subject of a sermon and then small-group discussion at our church recently. Here’s the version in Mark 10: 17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good … [Read more…]
There is an almost surreal quality to the last chapter of John, the last chapter of the Gospels. Jesus has already be resurrected and appeared to the disciples, and Peter decides to go back to his fishing. And other disciples join him, and they fish all night, unsuccessfully. Jesus then appears on the shore, cooking … [Read more…]