By Matthew L. Skinner Current events, like much about our lives, frequently leave us hopeless, fearful, and uncertain. Religious faith isn’t a matter of wishing away these experiences; it involves perceiving God in the midst of our hardships. I still remember one Friday night when I, an overly sensitive preteen, made a conscious decision to stop watching the nightly news with the rest of my family. I found what I saw too depressing and threatening: crime after crime, yet another house … [Read more...]
How to Survive the Sequester, Syria, and Other Threatening Headlines (Luke 13:1-9)
March 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Immigration Reform and the Challenges of Generosity (Luke 4:22-30)
February 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment
By Matthew L. Skinner Charity doesn’t leave us unchanged, which is just one reason why it’s hard to make ourselves do it. To be more specific: when we extend generosity and justice to others, it alters our relationship to them. Especially when those “others” are foreign to us. Hospitality has ways of making the people who receive it come inside and stick around, whether we really want them to or not. We see this on display in Luke 4:22-30, which tells the second half of a story … [Read more...]
Can We Speak of God’s Activity, in Triumph or Tragedy? (Luke 1:39-55)
January 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment
ByMathew Skinner Sometimes, the worse the tragedy, the more abhorrent the theology it elicits. Still numb from the overwhelming evil perpetrated against helpless children and schoolteachers last Friday, now we have to read idiocy from James Dobson and others who declare the senseless carnage a sign of God’s judgment against America. His words are disgraceful. I find them exploitative and unchristian. Certain Christians seem compelled to speak for God in disorienting moments like … [Read more...]
Is It Possible To Govern “Biblically”?
October 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment
By Matthew L. Skinner Temptations to hold and wield power are usually tough to pass up. Power is alluring whether we imagine having it over others or on behalf of them, whether it’s power in society, at home, or in a workplace. … [Read more...]
What Makes a Family? (Mark 3:20-35)
June 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
By Matthew L. Skinner “Parents just don’t understand” might be an ever-present theme in popular music, but it’s hardly a modern phenomenon. Jesus’ Family Discord If you’re looking for snapshots of well-adjusted and happy parent-child relationships from the ancient world, the Bible probably shouldn’t be on your short list of sources. Consider even Jesus’ family, for example. The New Testament preserves evidence suggesting that Jesus’ relationship with his mother was … [Read more...]
Mark 14:1-15:47: What Jesus’ Death Tells Us About Ourselves
March 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
By Mathew Skinner The Trayvon Martin story is tragic for many reasons. We see one of them in what his death has again brought to the surface: deeply rooted convictions that the system is flawed. We have a hard time trusting the criminal-justice processes in particular cases when the system-wide injustices remain so persistent. As Christians move into the week that most defines our faith, a week of remembering and reliving Jesus’ death and resurrection, this idea of a broken system … [Read more...]
Follow
Patheos on: