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 Poor You Always Have With You
The poor you always have with you. We are almost 50 years past the first Poor People’s campaign. Still, as the Kairos center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice puts it: We are experiencing unprecedented poverty in the midst of plenty; unnecessary abandonment in spite of unheard abundance. The poor you always have with you. At least 46.5 million people, …
America, We Must Be Born Again
For the homily today, we’ll follow important conversations from three major players: Nicodemus, the Samaritan Woman, and James Baldwin. Nicodemus: The Vulnerability of Rebirth First, Nicodemus. When Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again, Nicodemus asks how a grown man can go back into his mother’s womb. More than an Oedipus complex, Nicodemus’s apparent misunderstanding is a rhetorical ploy …