We want to come to the Table in faith, and not because of superstitious attachment to ritual. At the same time, we don’t want to avoid superstitious ritual by avoiding ritual itself—that would be a superstitious attachment to the arid intellectual customs of the modern age. This stark contrast between faith and superstition can be …
Stealth Disobedience
The Bible instructs us on how we are to live together. When we do not follow those instructions, there are two kinds of disobedience. One is flagrant, and knows that it is disobedient. When professing Christians give way to these sorts of temptations, the results are called theft, adultery, fornication, sodomy, false witness and so …
Our Own Definition of Love
Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father, we confess that we as a people have drifted into …
Dangerous Women
Here is a copy of the address that Nancy gave to a graduating class of eleven girls at Trinitas in Pensacola. The folks there are just wonderful, with hospitality to match.
No Particular Axe to Grind
In the introduction to Calvin and the Anabaptist Radicals, William Balke says two important things — important, that is, to the point I would like to make here. The first is that the name anabaptist results in a classic example of misdirection. “The name ‘Anabaptist,’ or ‘rebaptizer,’ picks out what actually was only an incidental …
Hoop Skirts and Jazz
I am clearly on an authenticity jag, and so I must crave your pardon. Here I go some more. Nancy and I just got back from a brief road trip with some friends, in the course of which we spent some time in New Orleans and some of its environs. Two of the (really cool) …
Sacrifices, Burnt Offerings, and a Major Cash Gift
“Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your …
Foxy News
A little while ago I submitted an article to the “On Faith” feature over at the Washington Post, and they ran it today. It is entitled Foxy News, and you can read it here.
Fake is not Real
The lust that our culture has for authenticity is so deep, and so unthinking, that it is the driving cause of our widespread acceptance of, and indeed insistence upon, sham authenticity. From factory-ripped jeans to locally-grown apples, and from them apples to politicians in photos with sleeves rolled up and jacket thrown carelessly over the …
Like Raccoons in the Garbage
So this is to follow up on the previous post. Working together is harder than it appears. One of the first things to distinguish is someone who wants to go the same place you do, but has a different view about how best to do it, from someone who wants to go somewhere completely different, …