Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
Genesis maintains when we are not in a proper relationship with God, all other relationships are corrupted. That pertains to humans as well as all other parts of the creation. The narrative labels violence as the big sin. Humans were vegetarians until Noah’s time when God made allowances for violently killing and eating other living […]
After examining the goodness of creation and humanity’s task in caring for it, Genesis spends several chapters on our failure. Again it is clear we are not dealing with historical events so much as the meaning of ancient stories that try to express humanity’s alienation from God. The rather bizarre narrative and four stories maintain […]
Although the ancient stories felt all parts of creation were good and worked together according to God’s design, they focused especially on the relationship between the divine and the human. In the second creation story, the human was to till and care for the garden. In the first, he was to operate as God’s agent […]
An honest reading of the creation stories quickly reveals the authors are not interested in particulars. Once you acknowledge that there are two very different, even contrasting accounts right next to each other, you recognize the editors are not trying to write accurate historical accounts. They are obviously more interested in what the ancient stories […]
Let’s do a series on what Genesis has to say about our present situation. We tend to think of the Bible as beginning with the Genesis creation and ending with Revelation’s last days. Then we remember it is really a library with books gathered in categories. When we do that we can consider that we […]
Perhaps it is time to wind up this little experiment. Five months ago, I set out to discern some marks of a gospel community. At the time, I was not sure where I was going. People kept telling me the church had changed drastically since I retired twenty years ago. Many were no longer worshipping, […]
The church has always maintained that one place where the Risen Christ encounters us is in the Eucharist. In the gospels, Jesus was constantly sharing meals and this has continued with his coming to us in the Communion meal. One of our readers, Paul, has observed that my treatment of this challenged two theories of […]
It’s Christmas time. Time for one of my favorites: The Conclusion to W.H. Auden’s “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio.” NARRATOR: Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes Some have got broken and carrying them up to the attic. The holly and […]
It’s Christmas time. Time out for one of my favorites. “The Oxen” by Thomas Hardy Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. “Now they are all on their knees,” An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in hearthside ease. We pictured the meek mild creatures where They dwelt in their […]
After receiving the response to last week’s lesson, I decided to comment further on eating together as a mark of the church. It was an easy decision as I think it addresses one of the biggest spiritual problems in our time, the failure to eat meals together even with our own families. Certainly, as the […]
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