One of the foundational temptations for us as we consider our forms of social organization is the temptation of thinking that we are unique, and that no one has ever been in the soup we are in. Globalization, the Internet, micro-chips, frankenfood, and wireless hot-spot coffee shops all make it impossible for us to even …
Still a Shame
“If gold ruste, what shal iren do?For if a preest be foul, on whom we truste,No wonder is a lewed man to ruste;And shame it is, if a prest take keep,A shiten shepherde and a clene sheep.” (Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, ll. 500-504)
According to His Truth
INTRODUCTION:The background to this psalm is found in 1 Samuel 23, and it is a testimony to David’s faithfulness to God in the midst of much unfaithfulness to him. David had delivered Keilah from the Philistines, but the Lord told David that they would turn him over to Saul. He then went to the wilderness …
Talebearing and the Teenager
For you young people, this part of your life is a white water stretch of the river. And one of the most treacherous rapids that you will need to navigate is the challenge presented by the sins of others, and by the glaring sins of others. When do you keep silent, and when do you …
The Gift of Faith and Joy
If there is any good in this life, it is enjoyed as the gift of God. If God gives the gift, and the capacity to do more than just hold that gift in your hand, then joy is possible. This is true of our physical life, our physical food, and it is true of our …
Without Holiness
Father, we acknowledge that You are the holy God, and that we have somehow believed that we could rest in Your favor without being holy, and without appealing to the name of Jesus Christ, the only name capable of making men holy. We confess that our nation thinks of itself as amiable and well-meaning, and …
A Tea Party Pivot
Some have commented on the fact that the Republican Pledge to America did little more than tip the hat to what are called the “social issues.” I am less inclined than others to complain about that in itself — you can’t talk about everything all the time. But the omission nevertheless illustrates the true nature …
Keeping Reality Mandatory
“When we quarrel with the way the world is, we find that the world has ways of getting back at us” (Fidelity, p. 86).
That’s One Lucky Verger
“They confuse those whom they ought to confirm, and stagger those whom they should establish. Bishop Blomfield tells us that a certain verger said to him, ‘Do you know I have been verger of this church fifty years, and though I have heard all the great sermons preached in this place I am still a …
Win Win
James K.A. Smith interviews James Davison Hunter here, and then writes about him here. Let me give you a sec to get those read. The same sorts of things that I have raised in my reviews of both Smith and Hunter could be said again here, but let’s not. Suffice it to say that after …