It was not surprising to find a huge maw smiling from the side of one of the hills we were hiking on. We were adventurous college students, so we decided to enter the cave mouth, but as we walked upright into the shallow cave the ceiling began sloping into the hillside causing us to have to stoop, then crawl. The room-sized cave turned into a small tunnel that, at its smallest, required us to squirm on our bellies. Continue reading The Narrow Way
In November 1954, Alfred E. Neuman made his Mad Magazine debut on the front cover of The Mad Reader. The iconic figure was known for his comic book caption, “What, me worry?”
There are times when anyone wishes that s/he could share some of Neuman’s cavalier, no worries approach to life. This is especially true in an age that is dominated with catastrophic financial news, wars, and other issues that bring boat loads of worry. Continue reading What, me worry?
On our street in Kentucky was a sign that said, “Caution Slow Children.” My wife and I would occasionally chuckle about it and say something like, “We should be cautious because there are slow children on this street.” Or we would debate if the slowness was mental or physical.
Of course the word “slow” wasn’t a modifier of “children.” It was simply telling drivers to be careful and to slow down. The process of figuring out what “slow” meant is called hermeneutics, and it simply means interpretation. Continue reading It all starts with hermeneutics.
In the 60’s Haight Ashbury was Ground Zero for what was known as the counter-culture movement. The movement was known for its opposition to the Vietnam War, its loosening of sexual ethics, and its rejection of traditional modes of authority.
Spokesmen for the movement were musicians–The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. The gospel of the movement called its disciples to “do your own thing,” “turn on, tune in, and drop out,” and the vision of the movement was the Age of Aquarius. It was counter-cultural from start to finish. Continue reading Clashing Kingdoms
In the 1970’s a comedian named Flip Wilson had an award winning comedy show that won him a Golden Globe and two Emmy Awards. One of the characters he created for his show was a woman named Geraldine Jones who was famous for her phrase, “The devil made me do it.”
The iconic phrase is still quoted as a way of saying that we’re not responsible for whatever it was that we just did. “The devil made me do it.” The writer James would disagree with Geraldine Jones. Continue reading What makes rivers crooked?
Texts read in churches these days often have to do with the birth and infancy of Jesus. The writer of the Gospel of John went back farther than that – when the birth of Jesus was just an idea in God’s mind.
What John says about Jesus was and is extraordinary. He was in the beginning with God. He was God. Nothing exists that he didn’t have a part in creating. The effect of his life was to bring life and light to humanity. People who accept him and his claims are given power to become part of God’s family. Continue reading When God bought a tent
His parents were poor. When his mother’s water broke, there was no suitable place for her to birth her little child. So a stable of some sort with a hay-filled crib was the first nursery. Not hardly what you would expect for Messiah.
The first hours of his life were rather spectacular. Angels sang to shepherds about the birth. A star in the sky notified the Magi of his whereabouts. Rumors swirled around Bethlehem that someone important had been born. Expensive gifts were brought by the Magi to his humble birth place. But that was the end of the glorious. Continue reading Born in Crisis
A news story from the past about a town’s “Christmas” parade was a study in contradictions.
There was a possibility that the town would change the name of the parade to something like “holiday” parade, but the Christian community raised a loud protest, wrote letters, and otherwise worked to force a return to the traditional name. They won. Continue reading Christmas 2010
I’m fascinated by Mary, Jesus’ mother.
We don’t know a lot about her. Luke gives us a few insights: young and unmarried, from a no-nothing town called Nazareth, and pledged to marry Joseph. Luke says that when Jesus was 12, Mary scolded him for getting separated from the family. That’s about it.
The gospels paint a Mary that hangs around on the fringes of Jesus’ life. John said that Mary told Jesus that the wedding they were attending was out of wine, a social faux pas. Continue reading At your service!
Isaiah 10 was probably written sometime during the Assyrian invasion of ancient Judah and the siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. In order to understand the national mood of Judah, compare it with how any modern-day nation has felt as its lands have been overtaken by hostile armies.
It would not be unlike the occupation of France by Germany, the deportation of the Jews to Holocaust camps, the bombing of Iraq, or the genocide in Darfur. Pick any country whose people are displaced, killed, stolen from, suffering famine, or otherwise suffering mistreatment, and you will get the picture. Continue reading A Little Good News
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