Psalm 119:137-144, each verse beginning with the Hebrew letter tsade, revolves around familiar themes for those who read Psalm 119: the Law of God is right, the psalmist is committed to observing the Law of God, his enemies are a nuisance, and he pleads with God to understand the Law. In part because the letter is tsade, the psalmist focuses this section on God being right (tsadiq) and therefore his Word being right. Inherent to the psalmist is not so... Read more
O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your lovingkindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. BCP Read more
Downloads vs. The Duty to Worship God He pulled his earbuds out. He was working out on the crotch machine. You know the piece of equipment. The one where you exercise your thighs by pushing in and out like the levers of a pinball machine; the one that appears designed for no other purpose than to equip the exerciser for feats of ecstatic prowess. “I was just listening to your sermon from Sunday.” ‘You can listen to sermons while you work... Read more
Well done, Mike Bird. Now that Bernie Sanders has made socialism cool again, were the early church socialists? We have to ask because of those famous passages in Acts 2.44-45 and 4.32-35 about the believers selling their property and depositing the proceeds in a general fund, and quite understandably, people have touted the first Christians as proto-socialists. On the one hand, this has some traction since the Lucan Jesus always sides with the ‘poor’ and frequently condemns the rich (e.g. Lk... Read more
By John Frye A year ago, within 74 seconds Philando Castile was dead from a rapid firing police officer who thought Philando was reaching for his lawfully right-to-carry gun. Philando shouted to the officer that he did legally have a gun. Philando’s girlfriend testified that Philando was complying with the officer to show his ID. In the quick, panicked confusion, a few seconds later Philando died. The police officer was charged with second degree manslaughter and two counts of reckless... Read more
Psalm 119:129-136 (letter pe) expresses two things: various words of the Bible (seven different ones) and the wonderful delight the psalmist finds in them. The first word mentioned is “statutes” (‘edot). He finds the edot of God wonderful and therefore he delights to obey them. Statutes are extolled as wonderful — they generate wonder. Torah is clarified in this word edot as “witness” as in Deut 31:26: “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of... Read more
Chapter eight of Alister McGrath’s book A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology deals with the views of Augustine of Hippo on creation. Augustine reflected at length on Genesis, creation, and time. These reflections fill the second half of Confessions (Penguin Classics) and crop up in other works. Augustine also wrote several commentaries on Genesis, some readily available today including 41. St. Augustine, Vol. 1: The Literal Meaning of Genesis (Ancient Christian Writers) and a collection... Read more
In the next paragraph of Psalm 119 (vv. 121-128, each beginning with the Hebrew letter Ayin), the psalmist considers his own integrity before God from a variety of angles. He appeals to God on the basis of his own integrity, he yearns for God on that same basis, he opens himself up to God, he requests God to act, and he identifies himself on the basis of his integrity. It strikes many today as inappropriate — especially if we are... Read more
I want to commend Justo Gonzalez’s new book, A Brief History of Sunday: From the New Testament to the New Creation. The story is gnarly, there are some questions we may never answer, but the fact is clear: Christians have established Sunday as a day of worship, fellowship, and rest. Simplistic answers won’t work as this master church historian reveals: it’s not as easy as “did the Christians turn the Jewish Sabbath into Sunday?” nor “Was it Saturday or was it... Read more
By Bryan Schackmann the Preaching Minister at the Glendale Church of Christ in Glendale California. A couple months ago I was going to a performance for one of the teens at the church where I serve. On the way there this student texted me – “Are you still coming tonight?” “Yeah, I’m only a few minutes away,” I replied. “Ok, just to let you know – I’m a bit hurt today and I’m not sure how good it’s going to be. ... Read more
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