The Gifts God Gives: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 2 September 2012
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 2 September 2012 (14th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B) Song of Solomon 2:8-13 and Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9 • Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9 and Psalm 15 • James 1:17-27 • Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 Ultimately…
Wisdom and Thanks: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 19 August 2012
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 19 August 2012 (Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B) 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 and Psalm 111 • Proverbs 9:1-6 and Psalm 34:9-14 • Ephesians 5:15-20 • John 6:51-58…
No Room for Difference: A Review of Viral Jesus for SpeakEasy Bloggers
Viral Jesus: Recovering the Contagious Power of the Gospel By Ross Rochde 204 pp. Passio. $14.99. There are certain books that make me realize just how much other writers influence…
About the Loaves: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 22 July 2012
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 22 July 2012 (Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B) 2 Samuel 7:1-14a and Psalm 89:20-37 • Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Psalm 23 • Ephesians 2:11-22 • Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Mark 6 (ESV) As I often do,…
Struggling with God: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 15 July 2012
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 15 July 2012 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19 and Psalm 24 • Amos 7:7-15 and Psalm 85:8-13 • Ephesians 1:3-14 • Mark 6:14-29 This week’s Old Testament reading is one of those passages that…
Book Review: "The Road Trip That Changed the World"
The Road Trip That Changed the World By Mark Sayers 285 pp. Moody Publishers. $14.99. Mark Sayers’s The Road Trip That Changed the World is a piece of cultural criticism…
A Brief (and Predictable) Response to David French
An Open Letter to Young, “Post-Partisan” Evangelicals by David French Post-Partisan Evangelicals, Perception Versus Reality, and the Moral Primacy of the Abortion Debate by David French Since I’ve commented recently…
A Thorn was Given: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 8 July 2012
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 8 July 2012 (Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B) 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 and Psalm 48 • Ezekiel 2:1-5 and Psalm 123 • 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 • Mark…
Why to Love Willa Cather
I got my master’s degree in literature at a university in Nebraska, which means that I came of age, intellectually, in an environment in which Willa Cather was seen as…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #78: New Faculty
General Introduction – Displacement – David’s library carrel – Like us on Facebook! – Listener feedback Our Offices – Avoiding them, sharing them, owning them – Time management and privacy…
Book Review: "Home"
Home: A Novel By Toni Morrison. 147 pp. Knopf. $24. “The past is never dead,” wrote William Faulkner in his late play Requiem for a Nun. “It’s not even past.”…
WWJD 2.0: A Review of The Jesus Life for Speakeasy
The Jesus Life: Eight Ways to Recover Authentic Christianity by Stephen W. Smith 231 pp. David Cook. $14.99. I’ve said before that, if you want to see what a writer’s…
Some Brief and Scattered Thoughts for (next) Memorial Day
The High Holy Days of the American calendar sneak up on me more often than not. By the time I’ve realized that Mother’s Day is upon us, I’m usually scrambling…
I Saw, I Feared, I Heard: A Reflection on the Lectionary Readings for 3 June 2012
Revised Common Lectionary Page for 3 June 2012 (Trinity Sunday, Year B) Isaiah 6:1-8 and Psalm 29 • Romans 8:12-17 • John 3:1-17 I enjoy the challenge of passages like Isaiah 6. The narrative is familiar…
Missing the Platonic Point
Yesterday Tony Jones posted a brief reflection on ecclesiology, decrying Jurgen Motmann as too “idealistic” and saying that he’s “exponentially more grounded than Milbank, Hauerwas, and the other ecclesiologists on…