We are told in 1 John 4:16 that “God is love.” It seems a simple and, by now, obvious thing to say, but what does it really mean? It turns out that most of what we think it means has been determined by straight, white men, which means that our understanding of love and all its related fields – sex, …
It’s Over
We’ve finally reached the end of our series on the Minor Prophets. It seems that the people of Israel reached the end of their rope. After centuries of waiting to regain their status in the region, after watching Assyria, Babylon, and Persia fall, yet failing to become autonomous much less regain control of their Promised Land, the Israelites decide to …
MAGA: On Nostalgia and Its Discontents
In 2008, this country endured the greatest economic slide since the Great Depression. By 2016, we had recovered our losses and then surpassed our previous heights. Still, something was not quite right. Many Americans felt that America was no longer great. They wanted to “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Now this has gone from a campaign slogan to a rally cry …
Here’s Your Shovel. Where Are My Ashes?
Jonah reveals one of the secrets of the prophet game: they secretly don’t want to succeed. Prophets pronounce God’s judgment and proclaim an opportunity to repent, but they hope no one listens. I had an evangelical – a person for whom sharing the Gospel is the central call of his faith – tell me that he no longer tells anyone …
Nahum: A Prophet for Our Times
Sunday’s discussion was dense and far-flung. Much of it centered on biblical interpretation, but that concern arose as we read Nahum, which is filled with misogyny. It is what we call a “text of terror.” Specifically, it imagines Nineveh, the capitol of fallen Assyria, as a woman being sexually assaulted. Worse, it imagines that God is the agent of this …
We Are the Just Remnant
I’ve said before that the reason it seems like the prophets are predicting the future is that we keep making the same mistakes. It should come as no surprise, then, that the time into which Micah was speaking is very much like our own. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah, but an outsider, not a professional prophet. He prophesied mainly …
From Rebuke to Repentance
If y’all read last week’s blog, you know I was in a mood. A bad mood. Justice Kennedy’s mic drop after contributing to one terrible decision after another is disheartening, so I ended my introduction to our series on the Minor Prophets by noting that no one ever listens to them. Israel never repents. My fear and my lament is …
Repent, for the End is Near at Hand
In 1976, my parents took me and my brother to the Freedom Train. Amtrak, to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial, launched a rolling museum filled with memorabilia of our nation’s history. I was seven, so I don’t remember a lot of details, except for a lot of red, white, and blue. I remember there were old things, which have always captured …
The Gospel or the Gun
I’m sure we are all used to the rhetorical pattern following a mass shooting. Thoughts and prayers are offered, people suggest all kinds of possible causes and explanations, then we do nothing. I’m interested in that middle stage because it might suggest what our mindset is that results in the final moribund stage. The way that we talk about gun …
You Must Be Drunk! (sermon and commentary)
The idea for this sermon did not hit me until the night before I was to present it. It could have used some editing, perhaps some expansion of some points to make it more clear. Perhaps it needed some time to percolate, to find some heart. But, since it was so short, we got to have a conversation, which I …