The apostle Paul gets pushed around a bit by many who aren’t willing to read him carefully. Paul stood in the line of thinkers in the Bible who might be called “liberation gospelers.” We have to think of Moses and the Exodus and we have to think of Isaiah and the return from Exile. We have to think of Jesus and liberating people from all kinds of problems — and Paul is in that line. He believed deeply in freedom.... Read more
I’ll put it this way. We’ve not purchased a set of kitchen knives for cutting up stuff since we got married over 34 years ago. In fact, our knives now tear stuff more than they cut things. My teeth are sharper. Kris has this in mind for a birthday gift (for me) so here’s my question: Got any advice on a good set of kitchen knives? Read more
Our prayer today, Our Father, is for President Barack Obama. [Please add your prayers as well.] (more…) Read more
“This is a book with the not very catchy title Faith and Doubt, and the most important word in the title is the one in the middle,” so writes John Ortberg in the introduction to his newest book, Faith and Doubt . I’ve read a number of books in my life on doubt, and everyone of them — unless my memory fails me — was by a professor or a professional intellectual. Because this new book is by a pastor,... Read more
Galatians has three sections: autobiography (chps 1-2), theology (3-4) and praxis (5-6). Simplied of course. The opening section of the autobiographical argument for Paul’s gospel has several references to “gospel” and “gospeling”: (more…) Read more
A pastor-friend wrote me this letter. He’s asking what are the vocational temptations of a pastor. What tempts them the most as a pastor? [We’re not talking here about sexual temptations, etc.] What are the major temptations of a pastor as a pastor? We would love to hear from pastors on this one. One of the most common books I hear about in this regard is Eugene Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work . Perhaps you have other recommendations.... Read more
I make a confession: I don’t like books on leadership. I’m not sure why, but I’ve never found the word “leadership” remotely interesting or evocative of what I do or what I think pastors do. So, when I hear that a church has a leadership conference, I roll my eyes. Perhaps it sounds too corporate or managed or technique-ish … yes, that’s it. Too much of what I hear sounds like techniques. As for my own, admittedly unformed, ideas, I... Read more
We turn today to how Paul understands the word “gospel” and I will begin with Galatians, since I think it is the earliest letter of Paul’s. The moment we enter into Paul’s use of “gospel” we also enter into a web of thoughts. I will do my best to stick to what the text says in its context but it may involve pulling in other Pauline texts to make sense of what Paul says. We begin with Galatians 1:6-10: (more…) Read more
The name for this blog came from a book I wrote called Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others. That book has one central theme: that Jesus understood the moral life as one made of two loves — loving God and loving others. We believe that this vision of Jesus is not just for the specific behaviors but for all of life — including how we treat others on a blog. With the Jesus Creed as our theme we aim in... Read more
How do you respond to this letter to me? We occasionally get letters that we think would be good for public, civil conversation. This is one of those. The letter is being used by permission and I’m urging you to be civil and thoughtful in your response. We are esp interesting in how evangelicals who will vote for Obama answer this letter. Hey Scot – Sorry to bother you, I’m sure you receive many emails; but I have a political... Read more
Jesus Creed
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