This morning, in preparing for Palm Sunday, I was reading the account of the Triumphal Entry in the Gospel of Luke. What especially touched me on this reading was the fact that as the Lord was approaching Jerusalem on the donkey, while His disciples shouted out “Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” (loudly enough that the Pharisees in the crowd were demanding that they stop), the Lord was not smiling and waving, or even... Read more
I want this blog post to be a challenge. In the New Church, we embrace the teaching that God does not condemn anyone for ignorance of Him; that people who do not know Him as the Lord Jesus Christ, who are ignorant of His Word, can be saved, because if they have lived as well as they can in love to the neighbor and love to God, they will embrace Him as God after death, since “those who do the... Read more
Yesterday, I preached in Dawson Creek and Grande Prairie on waiting for the Lord, based on the story of Saul’s unlawful sacrifice (1 Samuel 13:1-15). The thing that struck me about the story is the fact that Saul did wait for the Lord, for seven whole days, while his army scattered; it was only after Samuel failed to show up that Saul offered the sacrifice. I can relate to that feeling – I’ve already waited and waited for the Lord,... Read more
New Church Perspective has finished publishing my two-part essay on how I read the Writings: Part I, Part II. Read more
There’s something about St. Thérèse. Until a year or two ago I’d never heard of Thérèse of Lisieux. I was introduced to her by Tomas Halik in his book Patience with God. There he wrote about her “dark night of the soul” leading up to her death, where she seemed to have lost her faith almost completely. But he also wrote about the things that had later led to the Catholic church canonizing her as a saint, especially her devotion... Read more
Recently I ran across a reference to the poem “The Blind Men and the Elephant” by John Godfrey Saxe (although for the life of me I can’t remember where), and it reminded me of the little-known final stanza of the poem. It’s little known because it’s never been published; I discovered it written in invisible ink on the back of Saxe’s original manuscript, hidden away in the depths of a dark, deserted Indostani library and protected by a wall, a... Read more
On Sunday evening, the Dawson Creek Church of the New Jerusalem held their annual Christmas tableaux service – the first I’ve participated in as resident pastor. “Tableaux” is short for “tableaux vivants,” meaning “living pictures.” In a tableau vivant, the actors stand completely still to form a still picture; when it’s done well, it can almost look like a three-dimensional photograph. The service this year here in Dawson Creek was simple and beautiful. The woman organizing it had a vision... Read more
This past Sunday, I preached on the appearance of the angels to the shepherds, declaring the good news, the gospel, that the Lord had been born. The essential teachings about who the Lord is and what the gospel is are contained in the angel’s words: “I announce good tidings to you of great joy that shall be to all the people. For to you is born today a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David” (Luke... Read more
At some point in college, I got fed up with theological charts and diagrams. Attending religion classes at the Academy of the New Church high school and Bryn Athyn College of the New Church, I saw plenty of them. There were a few reasons I got fed up with them, but mostly it had to do with me: I realized that in thinking I could understand spirituality with charts and diagrams, I had been mistaking the map for the territory.... Read more
[Edit: Note that this blog has a new URL: www.patheos.com/blogs/goodandtruth/ (changed from www.patheos.com/community/goodandtruth/). RSS feed: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodandtruth/feed/. Links from the old URL and its RSS feed should still work, but it’s probably a good idea to update your bookmarks anyway.] Stephanie Pappas, senior writer at LiveScience, writes of a new study indicating that infants as young as 8 months old like to see wrongdoers punished. Excerpt: Babies as young as 8 months want to see wrongdoers punished, a new study finds.... Read more
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