This is not an April Fools day post. It’s a post appreciating the greatness of Martin Luther, with whom I’ve had my own struggles. I, of course, love his accomplishment in the Protestant Reformation, wish more would be made on the part of many in seeing how political that movement actually was, think his posing of law over against gospel is not only a false dichotomy but shatters the biblical narrative, and of course I know what he did to... Read more
Source: It’s a defining question for Christian. Who was Christ? I don’t think you’re let off easily by saying he was a great thinker or great philosopher. Because, actually, he went around saying he was the Messiah. That’s why he was crucified. He was crucified because he said he was the Son of God. So, he either, in my view, was the Son of God or he was nuts. Forget rock-and-roll messianic complexes. I mean Charlie Manson-type delirium. And I... Read more
When I was growing up we had tossed salad with dinner quite often, especially during the summer. My dad would make the salad, with tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, and such, cut up small and tossed together, well mixed. When we had company he would also make the salad and the mixed up tossed together nature would get comment. He used no salad dressing, only some celery salt and pepper. The rest of us often added dressing (I’m partial to blue... Read more
This post comes from one of our DMin students @nseminary, Ray Miller, who blogs here. Ray offers here an alternative way of responding to those who confess their sins. Imagine a 10 second video changing the course of your life. That’s what has happened to expelled OU student Levi Petit. He was caught on tape saying a shocking, disgusting, and hate-filled chant with some of his fraternity brothers. You all know the story from here. The fraternity was shut down... Read more
Imagine you are one of the twelve disciples, which is for all of us a bit of a stretch and if it isn’t … well, let’s move on. Imagine now that you are in Jerusalem that last week, that you had Passover with Jesus (before everyone doctored it into words like “communion” and “mass”), and now imagine you saw the guards come in the garden, and that you watched (near Peter, in fact) from a distance at what they were... Read more
A good reminder of 1st Century realities. Jeff Cook lectures on philosophy at the University of Northern Colorado. His thoughts on the cross can be found here: Everything New (Subversive 2012). You can connect with him atwww.everythingnew.org and @jeffvcook Celebrating an Execution This week Christians all over the world will celebrate an execution. In the sixth century BC, the Assyrians developed a new way to kill people. Early cultures the world over punished murderers and other scoundrels by hanging them from a cursed tree,... Read more
When I wrote The Jesus Creed I had one primary driving concern. I was teaching classes back to back, one on Jesus and one on spiritual formation. In the second class we were reading Richard Foster’s Streams of Living Water, a wonderful journey through various visions of Christian spirituality in the history of the church. But I was unsatisfied. Because of the class prior to the second class. The two classes began to encroach upon one another in this way: in the... Read more
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, `Why are you doing this?’ just say this, `The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.'” They went... Read more
Almighty and everliving God, In your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever.... Read more
W. Bradford Wilcox: America’s churches are in trouble, and they are in trouble in communities that arguably need them the most. One of the tragic tales told by Harvard scholar Robert Putnam in his important new book, “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis,” is that America’s churches have grown weakest in some of the communities that need them most: poor and working-class communities across the country. The way he puts it, our nation’s churches, synagogues and mosques give children... Read more
Jesus Creed
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