Troubled parishioner: I know that God is utterly reliable. He always keeps his promises. I just don’t know if the promises are for me. Pastor: But you hear the absolution every week, right? TP: Sure, but how do I know that God is talking to me? Pastor: You hear the absolution, right? TP: Yes. Pastor: That’s God’s word. TP: Sure, but how do I know God is talking to me? (more…) Read more
A few notes on Thomas on the sacraments, aided by Frederick Bauerschmidt’s excellent notes (in Holy Teaching , recently published by Brazos Press). 1) Bauerschmidt points out that Aquinas is bucking a trend in medieval theology by placing sacraments under the genus of “sign” rather than under the genus of “cause.” He does both, of course, but Aquinas describes the causation of the sacraments as a causation that pertains to signs. In short, in the context of medieval theology, Aquinas... Read more
Naaman is the epitome of the natural man: Powerful, successful, and convinced that he can use his clout and wealth to purchase just about anything. He believes that Syria has the best rivers. He is also a leper, estranged from God and from God’s prophet. 2 Kings 5 is the story of his conversion, in which he turns from false gods to Yahweh; from arrogance and pride to humility; from the great man to a “little boy” by following the... Read more
In his 1999 book, How the News Makes Us Dumb , C. John Sommerville wisely notes the difference between power and celebrity. He notes that news is a product, determined by “what publishers think they can get us interested in and get us to pay for.” There’s no reason, then, to think that events in the news are the most important events taking place: “In fact, there is reason to doubt that. Important people don’t like to be in the... Read more
Hart, Beauty of the Infinite Part 2, section I: Trinity Proposition 3: The Christian God shows the beauty of the infinite, and thus can be “traversed” by way of beauty. i. Desire’s Flight. God, Hart suggests is “all” but not a totality. That is, He is not a pantheistic all, but instead “contains and exceeds, give creation its breadth and difference, but at the same time infinitely transcends his gift” (p. 188). God’s infinity not only surpasses finite creation “qualitatively,”... Read more
Now ‘Eliysha’ the prophet called to one from the sons of the prophets And he said to him, “Tie your loins And take a flask of this oil in your hand And go/walk to Ramot Gil’ad. And you enter there And you see there Yehu’ son of Jehoshafat son of Nimshiy And you enter and cause-him-to-rise from the midst of his brothers And you shall cause-him-to-enter the inner room in the inner room. And you take a flask of the... Read more
2 Kings 4:42: “Now a man came from Baal-shalishah and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack.” One of the similarities between these two brief stories is that both are stories of gathering, bringing, and feeding. The sons of the prophets go into the land to gather food for the stew, bring back gourds, and put them in the stew to feed the rest of the... Read more
In our sermon text, an indebted widow appeals to Elisha for deliverance from creditors, and he responds by telling her to fill vessels with oil from a single jar. The supply of oil lasts as long as she has vessels to fill. She sells the oil and with the proceeds is able to make enough money to deliver her sons from debt-slavery. Like many of the miracles in Scripture, this story is both a literal event and a parable. It... Read more
Some thoughts on Claude Berri’s beautiful and provocative 1986/1987 films Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs . 1. The story is a reverse Oedipus tale, focusing on how Cesar Soubeyran(Yves Montand) ruins and kills his own son (Jean, played by Girard Depardieu) without knowing it is his son. The Oedipus allusions are made fairly explicit. A blind woman tells him that the hunchback is his son, and the preacher at the church service refers to the Oedipus myth,... Read more
There are a number of verbal links between 2 Kings 4:42-44 and the festivals of first fruits in Leviticus 23. First, Leviticus 23:14 prohibits Israel from eating bread or roasted grain or “new growth” (Heb. CARMEL) until the gift of the first sheaf. 2 Kings 4:42 refers to the man’s gift of “barley” and “new growth” (Heb. CARMEL). Second, the man brings “the bread of the firstfruits” to Elisha (2 Kings 4:42), a phrase that is elsewhere found only in... Read more
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