Ancient Israel was politically and religiously pragmatic. The earliest description of this can be seen in the nation’s clamor for a Golden Calf to quell their fears at Mount Sinai.
Fearing that God had abandoned them, they called for Aaron to cast an idol they could see and worship. They did this In spite of the fact that the Calf was of their own making and had no existence prior to the time when they turned their jewelry into a statue. Continue reading We have the Temple of the Lord!
“I don’t believe it. It’s fake news.”
The post came from a web troll who didn’t like the post. It was about a Kuwaiti company’s beautiful anti-terrorism video which called for an end to terrorism and sang, “let’s bomb violence with mercy,” “delusion with the truth,” and ‘hatred with love.” Continue reading Fake News
No Jokeby Jim Henderson and Cara Highsmith
At a small group meeting recently I told a group of people from our church about the imam, rabbi, and pastor from Peoria. “Sounds like a joke,” said one of our group members. It does sound like a joke!
But it’s not. These three men from Peoria are real, honest-to-goodness friends. And Jim Henderson is helping them take their wonderful story public. It’s a story we all need to hear because of the rancor, fear, and division we’ve all experienced in the past year. Continue reading No Joke
My editor asked me to rewrite the piece I was working on, using no personal pronouns. It seemed like an impossible request.
Everything I do has some sort of personal reference. When I get in my car I am thinking about where I want to go. Or, when eating, what will taste good to me. Or, when speaking, whether I will receive accolades from those listening. Continue reading Personal Pronouns
I grew up being taught that the Lord’s Prayer was irrelevant to the lives of contemporary Christians because the Kingdom, for which Jesus prays, was now present in the church. Why pray for something that already exists? Right?
So much of my life I missed out on the benefits of living inside the world of Jesus’ concerns and requests of God. It wasn’t until the last several years that the Prayer became a daily part of my life. Continue reading Living with the Lord’s Prayer
I didn’t grow up inside a culture of respect for the earth. “Earth” as a totality – flora and fauna, beauty, wildness, and wonder.
In my childhood we used disposable products with abandon; old car oil was often poured out on the ground, and we never considered the impact that disposed plastics would have on our world. Pesticides caused a decline in bird populations. Oceans started to become big toilets where our detritus was flushed when it rained. And, worst of all, people became as disposable as our throw away products. Continue reading Kingdom of God
In a prior life we were friends. There was a sort of ease in our conversations, and I did not have to expend energy questioning what was true and whether I was being used.
Then it happened. The lie. Continue reading The New State of Truth
trust \trəst\ n 1: assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something 2 : one in which confidence is placed
“Friendship- my definition- is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don’t have trust, the friendship will crumble.” – Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Continue reading Who do you trust?
In the 80’s there was a rumor that was going around, principally among churches, that Madelyn Murray O’Hare, the famed atheist, was petitioning the FCC to end religious broadcasting. People were frantic!
Since there was no Internet in the 1980’s, concerned Christians carried around petitions for churches to fill up with the names of people who didn’t want their 700 Club to go away. Periodically a new iteration of the petition would circulate. Continue reading Facebook and Political Discussion – Part 3
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven…
Thus we pray for God’s will to be done. Not ours. Producing an ethos that resembles what you would see if you were to visit the dwelling of God. It’s interesting to think about what that would look like and how we would be changed by it. Continue reading Facebook and Political Discussion – Part 2
MonoLogue 