Category

  You may have heard it said—even in a sermon, which should be free of such speculation—that Christians chose December 25 to celebrate Jesus’ birth because that was the day the Romans held a festival celebrating the sun god. The idea, oft proclaimed, is that Christianity... Read More →

  Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” It’s an aggressive instruction. The word for “put,” as elsewhere in this passage, can mean throwing, thrusting, plunging—the... Read More →

  Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous. The Prince of Life, who died, reigns immortal. Alleluia! (Victimae Paschali Laudes) As I grow older, I find myself increasingly interested in obituaries (I wonder why). And there, one often reads that the deceas... Read More →

  “Jesus . . . sent two of his disciples and said to them: ‘Go into the village opposite you, and immediately upon entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone should say to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’... Read More →

  When he was in high school, my eldest son was assigned Jonathan Edwards’s famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He was to compare it with a sermon of his own choosing—one his deeply Calvinist teacher might expect him to find wanting in light of the... Read More →

Psalm 83 For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant (83:5).    “Conspiracy theorist” is a term thrown about much these days, usually to belittle those who believe that sometimes people engage in, well, conspiracies. Call someone a conspiracy theorist... Read More →

The call of the church is to transcend the “myopias and smallnesses” of our present circumstances. Read More →

  The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin (Psalm 146:9). I write this on the morning of Election Day, and therefore do not know how things will turn out. And in a way, it does not matter, for... Read More →

Sometimes it is difficult to know how to pray, and we are helped by the words of others. The following is a prayer for the vulnerable, particularly the unborn, taken from Psalm 35. Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with the vulnerable—children who cannot contend for... Read More →

  Once in a while, I come across a quotation that clears away the fog and threatens to fundamentally reorient my thinking. I had such a moment recently, reading an excerpt from a letter written by a father to his 18-year-old adopted son. Here it is, taken from Gilbe... Read More →