Jesus consulting his “Sermon Team” of 12 to see what they can come up with. I opted to lie abed this morning for another hour since I don’t sleep through the night anymore, so then, being so late and lacking any inspiration whatsoever, I consulted my “Blogging Team” of eight…sorry no one…to see what they had come up with for my daily blog but all they had was a bunch of links of other people’s blogs. But feeling a certain... Read more
My grandfather went home to be with the Lord sometime in the night between Saturday and Sunday. He was a hundred years and ten days old and was, as you can imagine, ready to be out of here and on to the next thing. You can read about him here–a piece done up by his local paper. As a child, of course, I didn’t know anything about that. We would always stop and see him and my grandmother in Brussels... Read more
It is an awfully hot and humid day here in Bing and I am trying not to actually die. In an effort to cope, we’ve taken up our cudgel to continue to beat the preaching horse because that’s what we do. We talk about why you should write out a manuscript and why you should do your own study and why you should do at least some pastoral care and what happens between God and the people and the preacher... Read more
I’m over at Stand Firm today. The readings this morning are all about the rich and the poor, about those who have a lot and those who have nothing at all. Depending on what sort of church you go to, you may hear the long, admonishing passages about how to care for those who don’t have anything, how to pry open your hand and give of your own abundance. They all culminate in Jesus, of course, who, on his way to... Read more
Well, it’s almost ten in the morning and the trucks are outside my window shouting and digging deep into the road, trying to bring something good about, who knows. Let’s see if there are a few takes somewhere. One Read this thing yesterday and was surprised, as indeed it seems much of the world was. This is the money bit: At the beginning of March I tweeted to American journalist Andy Ngo, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Unmasked. “Congratulations... Read more
Me longing to read a really good book. This is really good, though not what I was mulling over in the night hours when I was trying to sleep. This bit is great: But the slogan and the very model of church made something else all too clear: the elderly are not welcome. If it’s not your grandparents’ church it’s not likely to welcome your grandparents, is it? If it’s defined in opposition to what’s dear to them, it’s not likely to... Read more
I was literally having a hard time waking up this morning, and then I came across this brilliant and apparently not ironic listicle of How Smart Parents Help Themselves Wake up in the Morning. Oh well, I thought, I’m not that smart and could certainly benefit from the wisdom of others. There must be something wonderful out there that I have not yet tried in the ongoing and terrible task of getting up day after day after day after day.... Read more
If you haven’t gotten around to reading Jesus and John Wayne, K du Mez has a shortened adaptation of her essential argument over at The Daily Beast. In this version, it’s not evangelicals rallying around their lodestar John Wayne, but falling hard for Mel Gibson in Braveheart: When the film was released, in 1995, evangelicals were in a time of transition. Their political and cultural values had been forged during the Cold War era, but by the 1990s the Cold... Read more
It is a bright, hot day here in the northeast and I am going to have to go figure out how to cool off, lest I perish. But before that, we’ve done a moderately lengthed podcast mostly about The Chosen and why we like it, with side notes about some theological errors, and about Father’s Day. We don’t really argue at all, so that’s too bad, but maybe it’ll still be the thing you need to kick off your week.... Read more
I’m over at Stand Firm this morning. It is Father’s Day and there is a light and gentle rain ushering in the morning. After so many weeks of thinking about the conspiracy of wicked men to kick strong and independent women out of their proper spheres—the factory, the office, the convent, and the pulpit*—and of enduring The Book of Longings wherein “Jesus” helps his dear wife Ana** “find the largeness inside her,” when I clicked on the lections for today,... Read more
Preventing Grace
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