Recounting an execution at Auschwitz Concentration Camp where he was a prisoner, Ellie Wiesel writes: Then came the march past the victims. The two men were no longer alive. Their tongues were hanging out, swollen and bluish. But the third rope was still moving: the child, too light, was still breathing… And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death, writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close... Read more
Exhibition lays bare Church of England’s links to slave trade The news that the Church of England had links to the slave trade comes as no surprise. Anyone who knows even a little bit about the history of slavery knows that everyone from the Prince Regent down made money off of slavery. It was a global phenomenon. Though slavery’s predicates varied, civilizations around the world had practiced it for millennia, and its tentacles spread through human history in tragic, strange... Read more
Every Sunday in worship, we repeat these words from the Nicene Creed: For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For us and for our salvation. Salvation. I look back over the thousands of times that I have heard people use that word – that bit of stained-glass language – and I wonder, do we even know what salvation... Read more
This last weekend marked the tenth anniversary of my younger brother’s death. He was a husband, father, and gifted orthopedic hand surgeon, whose life was defined by exacting skill in the name of compassionate care. An aggressive brain tumor and, ultimately, a devastating fall claimed first his career and then his life. I don’t believe that such tragic losses are God’s will for us. I do believe that as we place our lives back into God’s hands on such occasions,... Read more
The Nicene Creed was first adopted in 325AD and it has been at the heart of Christian worship and self-understanding for centuries. The word, creed, is based upon the Latin word, credo, which means “I believe”. But the Nicene Creed is more than a statement of beliefs. It is a series of convictions that can only be understood by living out their implications This morning we will focus on the opening lives of the Creed focus on God as Father... Read more
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” (Mt 3:13-15) One of my professors described the task of interpreting Matthew as akin to nailing jello to the wall. I’m inclined to... Read more
Let me put what I am about to say in context. I love Christmas, and I am hopelessly sentimental about it. One of my fondest childhood memories is the big unveiling of the Christmas tree that my parents staged every Christmas morning when I was a child. And I still enjoy it all: I enjoy shopping for Christmas gifts. We have three trees (two of them are small): what we call, a toy tree, the book tree (big surprise there),... Read more
The title of my dissertation was “Ethics and Eschatology in Selected Apocalyptic Literature and the Teaching of Jesus”. Now and then I was asked what I was working on by family, friends, and the occasional stranger. I only attempted to describe that title once. After that, I simply responded, “Jesus”. One of the great gifts of modern academic work is specialization, the process of learning more and more about less and less. The process has its strengths. It allows a... Read more
Introduction to the series Almost ten years ago, my brother, Dave, battled a fatal brain cancer for nearly eight years and died in January of 2013, as the result of a fall that was due in large part to his illness. In reaction to Dave’s quest to find a durable faith and supportive friends, I wrote a book called The Dave Test: A Raw Look at Real Faith in Hard Times. The book distills Dave’s quest into ten questions that any... Read more
My friend, David Watson describes a tension that no Christian who studies Scripture can escape: the competing claims of the church and the academy. The former believes that Scripture is “God-breathed” and that – while it is a product of specific historical settings and it cannot be applied without careful interpretation – it is a vehicle for the Holy Spirit. We read Scripture, but it reads us, as well. The latter holds that the Bible is simply library of documents... Read more
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