It is chilling to imagine, as the story of Noah reports, that God “regretted that he had made man on the earth.” The decision to “wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created, and not only the men, but also the beasts and the birds of the air” reminds me of my… Read More »
FEBRUARY132017
The question that Cain asks resonates through the ages: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The short answer is “yes.” Jesus spoke in the Sermon of the Mount of the need for “surpassing righteousness.” He pushes the negative injunction found in the commandment of avoiding murder into a positive admonition on proper behavior toward our neighbor.… Read More »
FEBRUARY122017
There was a show on public radio a few years ago “What d’ya know?” The answer was, of course, “not much.” As human beings we are in a constant process of discovering what we don’t know. Over the millennia we’ve learned that the world is not flat, that the earth is not the center of… Read More »
FEBRUARY112017
The snake didn’t have any arms to point to someone else to blame. Adam blamed Eve. “The woman whom you put here with me she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.” Eve blamed the snake. “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.” But for the snake there… Read More »
FEBRUARY102017
All temptations are a repeat of the first. The devil doesn’t have much imagination. Not that he needs much — we humans are suckers for his method every time. The devil doesn’t tempt us to do evil as if we were Snidely Whiplash. No, the devil holds out in front of us something good, something… Read More »
FEBRUARY92017
The story of Jesus’ encounter with the Syro-Phoenician (that is, gentile) woman shows his willingness to learn. He had been explicit that his mission was “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Her persistence taught him otherwise — that he had a larger mission which included her. It is not a coincidence that… Read More »
FEBRUARY82017
In the first chapter of Genesis God creates with just a word. “God said, ‘Let there be light” and there was light.” In the second chapter God is much more involved in the work of creation — literally getting the divine hands dirty. God is portrayed as a gardener, a workman toiling to make creation… Read More »
FEBRUARY72017
The story of creation in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis stresses that God created everything and that everything God created is good. “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.” The author sought to counteract the temptation to imagine that there are two forces — one good… Read More »
FEBRUARY62017
For the next two weeks the Old Testament lesson will be taken from the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible. The first eleven chapters are sometimes referred to as the pre-history of Israel. The stories in these chapters (Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Ark) are not reporting on… Read More »
FEBRUARY52017
“The only things that are certain are death and taxes,” goes the popular wisdom. And death and taxes are two things about which we feel powerless. In other words, the only certainties in our lives, death and taxes, we experience as outside of our control. We can all say with certainty: “I will die.” Can… Read More »
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