One of the oddities of Paul’s use of Genesis 15:6 is that this passage is clearly NOT about Abraham’s conversion. Abraham has already set up altars on at least two occasions (12:7-8), and he is calling on the name of the Lord (13:3-4). Even if that is unconvincing, Hebrews 11 makes it clear that Abraham responded in faith to the Lord’s call, recorded originally in Genesis 12 (Heb 11:8). Despite this, many Protestant commentators interpret Romans 4 as a discussion... Read more
Exhortation for Feb 8: Toward the end of this morning’s sermon text, Jesus takes the twelve aside for some individual instruction. He tells them, as He has done before, that they are going to Jerusalem so that all the things prophesied about the Son of Man can be accomplished: “He will be delivered up to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scoured Him, they will kill Him, and the third day... Read more
Eucharistic meditation for Feb 8: Luke 18:7-8 This morning, we explored the question, What does prayer have to do with justice? We can now take up a related question, What does the Lord’s Supper have to do with justice? The answer is much the same. The Supper is many things: It is a celebration, it is food, it is the gift of Christ’s body and blood through the Spirit for our nourishment; the Supper is the Christian Passover, Christian manna,... Read more
The incident with the “ruler” in Luke 18 begins with a question about how to inherit eternal life, and ends with the promise of “eternal life” (v 30). Along the way, Jesus has radically transformed the path to eternal life. Jesus does not say that one inherits life by doing NOTHING. He says that there IS something that must be done to inherit eternal life. But it is not a matter of accumulating goods, or accumulating merit through law-keeping. What... Read more
Kenneth Bailey helpfully emphasizes that Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican takes place in the temple, and he suggests convincingly that it is set during a public worship service. The fact that both men go up to the temple at the same time, and the fact that they are both “standing off” (presumably from others) indicates that this is one of the daily sacrifices. Luke 1 indicates already that there was prayer outside the temple while the priests... Read more
Sermon outline, Feb 8: INTRODUCTION As we saw last week, Luke 17:11 begins a new stage of Luke’s account of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, one that comes to an end in 19:48. This large section is divided into two subsections, 17:11-18:30 and 18:31-19:48. These two subsections are closely parallel to each other. Each begins with a reference to Jesus journeying to Jerusalem (17:11, 18:31). Each includes a miracle of healing, and the healing stories include a number of common elements... Read more
Here’s an ouline for a lecture on Renaissance and Modernity: Renaissance and Modernity Credenda/Agenda History Conference Pre-Conference Lecture February 5, 2004 Peter J. Leithart I. Assessments of the Renaissance and modernity. A. What is “modernity”? Slavoj Zizek in The Puppet and the Dwarf : “One possible definition of modernity is: the social order in which religion is no longer fully integrated into and identified with a particular cultural life-form, but acquires autonomy, so that it can survive as the same... Read more
The fact that the NT uses a political term, “kingdom of God,” to describe the salvation that Jesus achieves is puzzling to moderns. Part of the resolution to that problem is to recognize, as I’ve argued elsewhere, that the Bible treats “salvation” as a political issue. The other part of the issue is to recognize the central importance of issues of authority, the question of “who’s in charge.” If we go with “reign of God” as a translation of BASILEIA... Read more
The fact that the NT uses a political term, “kingdom of God,” to describe the salvation that Jesus achieves is puzzling to moderns. Part of the resolution to that problem is to recognize, as I’ve argued elsewhere, that the Bible treats “salvation” as a political issue. The other part of the issue is to recognize the central importance of issues of authority, the question of “who’s in charge.” If we go with “reign of God” as a translation of BASILEIA... Read more
Late dating of the gospels is historically preposterous. Even the most “conservative” dating assumes that Jewish Christians, who believed that the long-awaited salvation had finally occurred in Jesus, would wait over a decade before putting an ordered account on paper. On the contrary: The very first thing a Jew would do if convinced that Jesus was Messiah would be to pick up a quill and papyrus and start writing. Matthew, who wrote the book cleverly called “Matthew,” was a literate... Read more
Leithart
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