BEN: A fellow John Wesley Fellow, Beth Sheppard did her dissertation on the forensic rhetoric of the Fourth Gospel, including the term parakletos which she shows in this case to refer to a legal advocate or counselor who is preoccupied with the truth, and nothing but the truth about Jesus and salvation. I doubt that the usage in the Farewell discourses varies from these meanings, and it certainly comports with the Synoptic idea that when the disciples are brought on... Read more

13 years ago in 2006  I was involved in the CBS production of ‘The Mystery of Christmas’ filmed in the lands of the Bible— Here’s the original trailer…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7XjRlBX1S8 Not long before this Peter Gomes’ bestseller, ‘The Good Book’ came out with a chapter entitled ‘The Bible and Mystery’  He opens his discussion with the following remark—‘Mystery is not an argument for the existence of God; mystery is an experience of the existence of God.’ (p. 327). Now Gomes is not... Read more

  Reflection on 2 Cor.  12.7-10 where Paul asks God two remove his thorn in the flesh, and God says no, my power is made perfect in your weakness, my grace is sufficient for you, Peter Gomes in the ‘Good Book’ says this… “We learn first that the thorn is sent to Paul in the form of a messenger from Satan. The source of his trouble, whatever it is, is not God. The moral of the affliction, however is that... Read more

The NT has quite a lot to say about joy, in various contexts, and about rejoicing, and not surprisingly there are plenty of Christmas hymns that emphasize joy, with major composer like Handel chipping in on this subject.  Peter Gomme’s chapter on the Bible and Joy, in his ‘The Good Book’ one of the best treatments I’ve ever read on the subject, and I will be interacting with and quoting him here.  Perhaps the first major point he makes is that... Read more

  THIN PLACES Take me to the thin places Tween here and paradise, Show me the river And that must now suffice.   A glimpse of glowing glory Is all I need just now I can wait ‘til later To learn the why and how.   The border between realms Is not so hard to find, But crossing that fine line Means leaving this behind.   It doesn’t take a death wish To want to know some more Of what... Read more

“Contrary to the popular misconception, religion is not an escape from reality but rather a genuine effort to make sense of what passes for reality and all that surrounds it, Religious people are not escape artists; they are not practitioners of evasion or of self-deception. Religion is  not the answer to the unknowable or the unfaceable or the unendurable; religion is what we do and what we are in the face of the unknowable, the unfaceable, and the unendurable. It... Read more

  Peter Gomes was a very eloquent preacher, and a good writer as well.  His best-selling book from the 1990s is entitled The Good Book, and there is a good deal to commend about it. He sanctions careful detailed contextual study of the Bible. For instance, he says….p.12—-” “Bible studies tend to follow this route. The Bible is simply the entry into a discussion about more interesting things , usually about oneself. The text is a mere pretext to other... Read more

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BEN: With all this talk about the blasphemy of the Spirit, I kept waiting and waiting for you to deal with Jesus’ trial or hearing before Caiaphas and his tearing of his robes. What I find striking about that story, perhaps especially in Mark, is that Jesus admitting that he is the messiah is not the blasphemy. Jews expected a Davidic messianic figure that would be a human being. Claiming to be him might be delusional but it was not... Read more

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