I remember when I was a child having this dream that I was falling into some black abyss of nothingness. It’s really strange to have this constant feel of weightlessness. This of course is quite different from those dreams we all have of falling some short distance. We have this incredible sense of panic, which only lasts as long as our short fall. After we have fallen we usually awake to a more tranquil setting – laying in the comfort... Read more
7 April 2012 Holy Saturday… …what a strange name for a day. Yet it has always seemed to me to be eerily appropriate in the same way that the striking of the hall clock just at midnight every night seems to me to be strangely holy. There is that quiet, as if the whole house were waiting for the dull, flat striking, the close counting out. And when it is done, one can almost hear the house settling down at... Read more
As I prepare to celebrate this meal tonight, remembering an upper room two thousand years ago, I am gifted by a much older tradition. As I recall Jesus gathering with friends around a table to celebrate the Passover, I am reminded that their ancestors had already been celebrating G-d’s liberation from slavery for more than a thousand years. The Holy One liberates us from all kinds of slavery – slavery in Egypt, slavery to sin, slavery of our bodies, minds... Read more
In the early 50’s when Robert Schuller and others across the nation combined a growing car culture with “Church” they believed they were reaching a segment of the population traditional church wouldn’t or couldn’t. Drive-In church allowed parishioners to attend, hear a sermon, sing some songs, even receive communion and give- all without the fuss and muss of face-to-face interaction beyond a passing usher with elements and a communion plate or maybe being greeted by a through-the-window handshake from the... Read more
The customs of the Nacirema, a still very poorly understood tribal group, came to the attention of anthropologists about forty years ago. They are a North American group living in the territory roughly between the Cree and the Tarahumare tribal groups. Little is known of their origin, although tradition states that they came from the east. In the mid-seventies a group of anthropologists formalized the studies of this very strange and powerful culture. I’ve dusted off an old copy of... Read more
The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath – Jesus, Rabbi from Nazareth Is not defending Sunday as a day to meet with God simply re-instituting the temple in that it promises some sort of mystical experience in a specific time and place? The geographical implications also claim that God could then only be experienced in ‘this’ specific context. What we cannot do is assume that our geographic place has no bearing on who we are, what... Read more
This blog post is SO late, but I decided to write it using March Madness—the NCAA Basketball tournament as a clever metaphor. Then two #2 seeded teams were beaten by two #15 seeded teams, something that has NEVER happened in the history of the tournament and I realized that the unexpected in a college basketball tournament is more than a clever metaphor—it is a laboratory of contemporary life. “March Madness” is an interesting distraction that has evolved into a significant... Read more
Yesterday I received an email promoting a new Christian move called October Baby It is about a girl that is an abortion survivor and her journey of self discovery upon finding out about her history. What made the email noticeable was this statement: “This weekend, when the biggest box-office hit is expected be a film based on a popular book about young people being forced to fight to the death, OCTOBER BABY hits theaters with a resounding message about the... Read more
Was the Gospel been preached to all the world? A Fulfilled Perspective When you’re speaking with someone who is new to the topic of Fulfilled Eschatology, (or preterist theology, the understanding that all Bible prophecy, including Jesus’ coming, was fulfilled by 70AD) there are many questions that come up. One frequent flyer is, “Doesn’t the Bible say that the Gospel must be preached to the whole world before the End and Jesus can come?” And if I sense they’re actually... Read more
A number of years ago I was surprised by a phone call from someone high up in the Acts 29 network, the church planting organization started by Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill church in Seattle. The call was precipitated by some blogging I had done about Mark; the long and short of it was Mark had made some reckless and frankly crude comments in a public forum about an old friend and a goat. It was beyond the pale and... Read more
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