In this fourth and final week of Advent we lit the candle of Hope. The devotion we followed labeled the four candles: Promise, Light, Love and Hope. Each week we’ve been anticipating the coming of Jesus. We’ve meditated on God’s promise to send his Son to be the light of the world, the very embodiment of God’s love and in whom by the presence of the Holy Spirit we have hope. This week we lit the rose candle as our... Read more
Most pastors in ministry I know had a vision of what they wanted to be as a pastor before entering the ministry. Many still do. But a good many of those pastors are now frustrated, or unsatisfied or angst-filled because they are not being the pastor they want to be. Recently I was having coffee with a pastor friend and we were talking about pastoring. He was expressing frustration over the demands of pastoral ministry. The busyness of leading a... Read more
Purify my conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Messiah, at his coming, may find in me a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Read more
It’s Christmas. So put up your nativity sets. Polish up your star of Bethlehem. Feed the donkeys. Put your plastic baby Jesus in the manger. I guess we should dress up as shepherds, wise men, and angels. Let’s do the nativity all over again as we do every year. Get some cute little girl to play Mary, hold hands with a cute little Joseph. Watch them bring frankincense, gold, and myrrh. We can sing “Little Drummer Boy” and “We Three... Read more
Now I’m no atheist. I think atheism is very “retro,” very 1950s and 60s, back in the hey day of logical positivism, but it is not a serious intellectual option for me. Even the new atheists tend to be cranky, snide, and hate-filled old men who do for the good of humanity what Hannibal Lecter does for vegetarianism. Also, I don’t like the Greens Political party, not because I don’t agree with some of their policies on treatment of refugees... Read more
An often overlooked aspect of the Christmas story of Luke’s Gospel is the emphasis on the priesthood. The first character introduced in the story is a priest (Zechariah) who is in the Temple preforming a priestly act (burning incense): Priest, Temple, priestly activity. What’s more, we are told that Mary is related to Elizabeth who is a “descendant of Aaron” – notice not David. So Mary is of the aaronic line. Luke shows that Jesus was “presented to the Lord”... Read more
Watch this clip about Michael Licona’s new ministry initiative called Risen Jesus. If you have a church, college, school, or ministry that is interested in guest lecturers in apologetics, then I heartily commend Michael Licona to you. Read more
My former post December 25th Means the Triumph of Christianity over Paganism caused a bit of an uproar in pagan circles. Just read the comments. My wife reads my blog so I won’t repeat the content of some of those comments. Across the street at the Patheos Portal, Star Foster responds in a post When Interfaith Gets Ugly, with me obviously being the “ugly”. Now I’m not exactly a chip off a chippendale, my teeth are more crooked than the... Read more
Over at ABC Religion and Ethics are some reflections on Christmas by American theologian Stanley Hauerwas entitled: Facing God in the Face of Nothingness. Christian humanism is not based on the presumption that our humanity is self-justifying. Rather Christians are humanists because God showed up in Mary’s belly. We are not an evolutionary accident. We are not bubbles on the foam that coats a stormy sea. We are God’s chosen people. We have been given good work to do in... Read more
Euangelion
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