Read the scripture. Our passage is called a “floating pericope” by New Testament scholars. A pericope is a self-contained passage of Scripture. This familiar story of a woman caught in adultery is not found in most ancient manuscripts. In other manuscripts it’s located in John 7:53-8:11, at the end of… Continue reading
The royal proclamation is not simply the conveying of true information about the kingship of Jesus. It is the putting into effect of that kingship, the decisive and authoritative summoning to allegiance. Paul discovered, at the heart of his missionary practice, that when he announced the lordship of Jesus Christ,… Continue reading
The Greek word translated “gospel/glad tidings/good news” in the New Testament is euangelion. “Eu” in that word means “good.” That meaning continues in English words like euthanasia (good death) and eulogy (good word spoken at funerals and memorial services for someone who has died). “Angelion” means “message.” (The Greek word… Continue reading
Wrath is not as cut and dry a concept as many of us have been taught. We see in the Hebrew Scriptures the priority and abiding nature of God’s loving kindness over God’s limited wrath. As Jesus teaches in Luke 15, God seeks the lost sheep and the lost coin until She finds them. And if we continue our rejection of love, goodness, and shalom, God gives us a free rein to continue our folly. But we see in Paul that even when God gives us over to our sin and consigns us to disobedience, Her mysterious plan finds a way to have mercy on each of us. Continue reading
[The following is my version of a story other ministers have used over the past decades. I have no idea of the identity of the story’s original author. What follows is the version I crafted and told many years ago. I find it helpful and hopeful, especially in a time… Continue reading
Accepting ourselves as loved unconditionally, sacrificially, and eternally by God can be the most difficult step in our Christian pilgrimage. We just can’t believe that such good news is for the likes of us. But it is for us and for everyone else in God’s creation. That is what grace is all about. And it is only as we accept such grace that we will be free to love others, to live victoriously and courageously, and to dance in the light–and even in the darkness. Continue reading
Psalm 51 is one of the seven penitential psalms of the Hebrew Scriptures and is among the profoundest of prayers in the history of religion. It is also historically one of the most important passages of Scripture during the Lenten season. But there is something about this psalm which jars… Continue reading
(This short article is intended for five groups: Christians who are prone to limit God’s grace to those who believe exactly as they do; Christians whose predominant images of God are punitive and judgmental in nature; Christians who are confused regarding the nature of grace; non-Christians who mistakenly assume the… Continue reading
The New Testament states that when one becomes a Christian, a dramatic change occurs in the life of that person. Different metaphors are used to describe this metamorphosis: born again, born from above, dying to the old self, raised to a new life, living according to the spirit, a new… Continue reading
There are four primary stories in Genesis 1-11: The Story of Adam and Eve, the Story of Cain and Abel, the Story of the Flood, and the Story of the Tower of Babel. In each of these stories we see the same pattern. There is first the sin of humans;… Continue reading
