Read the Scripture Passages As a child, when I heard the word “lint” (pronounced the same as the word “Lent”), I thought of those little specks of whatever people would get on their clothes. I remember every Sunday morning my father using the lint brush to brush off specks on… Continue reading
(15 minutes) Wonder is the reason we seek to know any reality whatsoever. (Nicholas of Cusa) Nicholas of Cusa (1400-1464 CE) was a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church who served in Greece. Because of the prominence of the Greek Eastern Orthodox Church in that part of the world, Nicholas… Continue reading
Years ago psychology of religion professor Wayne Oates wrote a book entitled When Religion Gets Sick. Oates pointed out that religion can be good or bad, healthy or sick, liberating or oppressive, intelligent or insane. This past week we have seen several examples of bad, sick, oppressive, and insane religion…. Continue reading
The popular psychologist Jesse Lair wrote a book years ago entitled I Ain’t Well, But I Sure Am Better. In many ways, these words could be the testimony of my life. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’ve come a long way, too. Just ask my wife. To… Continue reading
“I LOVE THE RECKLESSNESS OF FAITH. FIRST YOU LEAP, AND THEN YOU GROW WINGS.” (William Sloane Coffin) On this blog you will find several articles and sermons on “faith.” In those articles you will see that most of the time the word “faith” in the Bible has the basic meaning… Continue reading
(This is the second sermon preached on the Book of Job. The first sermon found as “Job1:1-2:13; 42:7-17 “A Question of Motive” should be read first. The beginning of that first sermon explains the distinction between the prose and poetry parts of the Book of Job.) In the vast poetry… Continue reading
Meister Eckhart lived from 1260-1329 and was probably the greatest of the medieval Christian mystics. He was a very popular preacher in his day. We still have most of his sermons. Some of his insights anticipated discoveries in modern physics as well as the development of Process Philosophy and Theology…. Continue reading
The background to our passage is the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. Those descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have suffered the harshness of slavery for centuries. Generation after generation has cried out for freedom. The Hebrews experience despair, agony, humiliation, suffering and, perhaps worst of all, hopelessness. The… Continue reading
Why was Moses allowed to see the back of God? He saw some of the glory of God – not the face-to-face glory he desired, but the back of God–the hind-parts as the Hebrew puts it. Why? We understand why he was not allowed to see God’s face (he would… Continue reading
a 9-minute podcast In the second sermon of this series on John 3:16, we discovered that the focus of eternal life in the New Testament is not on how long it lasts (although it lasts forever)—the focus is on the quality of life. Eternal life is a life lived in… Continue reading
