I imagine most of us know that the church used Paul’s letters to develop a theology around Jesus’ life and teachings. Although those letters address specific concerns in particular churches, they do assume a rather coherent perspective. Most of the people in my parish appreciated Paul. However, some berated him over two matters. The first […]
We all know Peter as the outspoken fisherman who is the first to recognize Jesus as the Christ. Although he was a leader among the apostles, he denied knowing Jesus after his arrest. Then, in a famous resurrection appearance, he was forgiven and became the spokesman for believers at Pentecost. Almost overlooked is his opening […]
Pentecost is the New Testament creation story. The Spirit of God moves to bring order—or perhaps it’s better to say it reorders or heals the corrupted creation. Pentecost addresses the themes I found in the Old Testament stories. Admittedly, I read those stories from the perspective of our present political situation. However, the fact that […]
I decided to examine Old Testament stories to counter Christians who are using their faith to endorse self-serving MAGA programs. For the most part that has worked out. A good portion of the stories call God’s people to care for the poor and extend kindness to foreigners living among us. They picture believers resisting the […]
When I reread the Esther story this time, I was constantly reminded of the cowboy movies that were a big part of my young life. Every Saturday afternoon, my parents would give my brother and me 12 cents, and off we went to the big social event of the week— the 2 o’clock movie at […]
As I wrote previously, some in our discussion group were troubled by the way women were treated in the ancient stories. Others suggested they had to read these in their historical contexts. When things got pretty emotional, we decided to continue by reading Ruth and Esther. My confidence in having a good grasp of Ruth […]
I come away with a different impression of King David every time I read his story. I imagine that is because current events draw my attention to one of the many layers of historical interpretation we find in the Bible. This time, I kept seeing similarities with Donald Trump. Although the texts are doctored up, […]
The Moses story is not only that God frees the Israelites from slavery and genocide, but also that he creates a nation by giving them their own land and teachings about just ways to live in it. I was caught off guard when discussing these social teachings in our Monday night gathering. My intention was […]
When I began looking at Bible stories to help us understand our present situation, I never expected how much they addressed our problem with immigration. Just about every ancient story faced the problem of living as aliens in a foreign land because famine or suffering forced God’s people to leave their homes. For example, Moses’ […]
We usually pass off the Joseph story as a clever children’s tale. In truth, as written in Genesis 37-50, it is a rather sophisticated attempt to understand God‘s participation in our world. We still ask the questions it addresses. It quickly becomes apparent that this is a retelling of Cain and Abel, which describes the […]
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