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A first post
Almost every week, as I prepare my sermon there’s stuff that gets left out. It’s not unusual for me to run up one alley early in the week; then, at the end of the week the spirit takes me in another direction, sometimes a completely different direction. Later, I’ll look back at a page or two that Continue reading
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The Raising of Lazarus, a Contemporary Reading
The gospel stories of Jesus of Nazareth all tell us that he was killed, executed by the state. Killed by the “world’s lone super-power,” if you will. And each of the gospels tells us that the powers of that time and place began to plot Jesus’ death because of an event, an action or a Continue reading
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Just World Hypothesis
The need to see victims as the recipients of their just deserts can be explained by what psychologists call the “Just World Hypothesis.”[1] We’ve heard the statements, “Look at how she was dressed, she was asking for it.” A similar attitude regards the killing of unarmed African Americans in these United States, “Well s/he must Continue reading
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Poverty is Death
In 1968 a conference of Latin American Roman Catholic Bishops convened at Medellin, Colombia. The conference’s express goal was to interpret the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) for the Latin American context. The conference is notable for the emergence of the statement “the preferential option for the poor” as a theological context for Latin American. Continue reading
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What happened?
It’s not unusual to hear people talk about some mythical time, in the past, when the world was comprehensible, when most levers of culture and society seemed to function as they were supposed to. More often than not it’s our conservate brothers and sisters who hold this view. They lament that the times have changed, Continue reading
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Sucking the life out of us
I’m not prepared to talk about all the symbols and metaphors in the movie “The Matrix.” The entire concept of the movie is a metaphor and there could be many valid interpretations of the symbols and metaphors in the movie. But I keep coming back to this video. I grapple with the end of the Continue reading
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Who are we?
Several years, during Lent, I preached a sermon that referenced Amos 2:6, which includes: ” Because they sell the righteous for silver, And the needy for a pair of shoes…” I decided to take a social justice angle on this passage, which is entirely appropriate. You see, the passage is about justice, about the exploitation Continue reading
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Exchanging promises with God
The following scene comes from the movie The End of the Affair (1999), starring Julianne Moore and Ralph Feines, based on the novel by Graham Greene. Moore and Feines have an affair in London during World War II. They are at his flat one afternoon, when London is bombed and his flat is hit. “I’ll give Continue reading
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“Why are there so many sick people in the Gospel?”
In answer to the title question, Warren Carter writes, in his commentary at Working Preacher: The Gospel reflects its imperial world at this point. Roman imperial structures and practices were bad for people’s health. Some 70-90 percent of folks in Rome’s empire experienced varying degrees of poverty — from the very poorest to those who Continue reading
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On Prayer
I went off to college intending to become a minister. Believing that someone with this ambition should be engaged in a regular practice of prayer, I would often go to the prayer chapel at my church and attempt to pray. My particular struggle with prayer has been distraction. At that prayer chapel, log ago, I Continue reading
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The Summer of Paul
It’s the summer of Paul. I needed a reason/excuse to read this tome. And, this summer Galatians appeared in the lectionary, good reason/excuse. In seminary, I had the good fortune to take a course at Notre Dame University concerning Paul and his letters, taught by the late Jerome Murphy-O’Connor. Of course we used his book, Paul: A Continue reading
I've Been Thinking 