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 …
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 …
Peace in a Time of Chaos
Repent! For the end is near! In fact, it’s already here. Remember a couple of weeks ago when the world ended, as it always does? Now is the time of the after-thought, the metanoia, the thinking in the after. The world is chaos, welter and waste, and the Spirit of God hovers over the top of it, coaxing it back …
Creation Care for Christians: Climate Change
Last week, we were coping with despair in the face of immense problems. This week I made the turn toward anger. The chapter we read in Patricia K. Tull’s Inhabiting Eden focused on the prophet Jeremiah. The background of the scene is that the Babylonians are poised to siege Jerusalem. Jeremiah is going around telling everyone of the danger. He …
Lost in Death, Found in Life (Plus: Notes on Ordination)
This week’s passage might be the most well-known parable in the Bible. Since it is so well-known, we also know exactly what it means. We are the terrible son, God is the forgiving father, and the bitter brother is, I don’t know, Robert Jeffress? As we discussed last week, the beauty of a parable is that it opens more questions …