Many of us know the story of the prodigal son. A father on an estate has two sons, the older one obedient and compliant, the younger one wild and adventurous. The younger one comes to the father, asks for his share of the estate, and proceeds to dump the contents of his father’s wealth into the hands of sinners and drink. In the Diaspora, of all places. Which story has opened up the light of grace to you? The story... Read more
Why do people from Texas call it “barbecue” when it’s not even pork? Read more
The Christian should care both about extreme wealth and poverty, the former because money easily becomes idolatrous and the latter because Christians are to love all and anyone in pain and misery ought to experience the grace of Christians. This recent set of graphs reveals the Top 1% are getting richer and richer while the poor are on the decline in income. Read more
You may well know the rest of the verse … In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female. The verse comes from Galatians, that great magna carta of liberty in Christ, from the 3d chapter at verse 28. A number of models have been constructed to figure out what Paul had in mind, including the one that says “salvation is equal for all but after that there is plenty of division or distinctions.” So,... Read more
Three quick observations: One. Jesus said the whole Torah was fulfilled in learning to love God and to love our neighbors. I call this the Jesus Creed, others call this the Great Commandments. Two. Jesus illustrated love of neighbors with the Good Samaritan, who had the wrong answers (theologically) but the right kind of love. He was the foil for the priest and levite, who had the right answers but the wrong kind of love. Three. Jesus said our enemies... Read more
From CNN.com, by Sabrina James: (Parenting.com) — Last night I sat down to watch the Oscar red carpet with my 6-year-old daughter Kaia. She played dress-up with her American Girl doll while I followed the commentary on Twitter. “Look, Mommy! Julie’s all ready for the red carpet,” she exclaimed, showing off the updo she created for her doll. She watched with mild interest until the moment we’d been waiting for arrived: Nine-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis appeared in a frenzy of flashing camera... Read more
From Time, by Steven Brill, and this set of clips from Josh Wooden … and we need to have a good conversation about the issues raised in this article: Why are costs so high? We all have some crazy stories about some medical item or procedure. When I had shoulder surgery, about a decade ago, I asked the kind woman at the counter when I was paying the bill why the extreme prices — to which she said matter of... Read more
Tim Keller’s book The Reason for God grew out of his experience talking with young professionals and others skeptical of Christian faith. The questions are similar to those raised on many college campuses – among both faculty and students. Come on, many ask us today, you can’t really take the Bible literally—Can you? Or more often in my experience there will be derisive comments about those fanatics who do take the Bible literally. The question of the Bible is addressed... Read more
When it comes to the one, holy, universal and apostolic church, the most glaring lack in the modern church is the “one” term. Instead of a one-Body church, the church is a fractured community of diverse voices. So much so that there are branches or segments of the church that are often unheard. A friend of mine, Kathy Khang, wrote a book called More Than Serving Tea, a book advocating female teaching and leadership gifts and a book that made... Read more
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Jesus Creed
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