A Fresh Perspective

A large crowd has been following Jesus and apparently they haven’t eaten in some time. When Jesus raises the question about feeding this great multitude Philip seems overwhelmed by the need – and the need is great: “Six months wages could not buy enough food.” But then Andrew comes at it from a different point of view. He points out that while they don’t have much, they do have a little: “There is a boy here who has five barely loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” One could read Andrew’s question the way we read Philip’s answer. Or one could read Andrew’s question in a more positive, hopeful vein as I do: Well, the need is great but we do have something.  And Jesus does indeed do something doesn’t he? He turns the little into much. Out of their scarcity comes an abundance, so much abundance that there are 12 baskets of leftovers. John makes it clear that this is a sign of the kingdom of God, a sign of God’s will and way in the world. John s...

Should Christians who are celebrating marriage equality empathize with those who are grieving over the Supreme Court ruling?   The call to empathy comes from a colleague in ministry in a recent post. He writes,   “Whether or not you agree with those who weep, they are still weeping today. They are experiencing loss. The world that they anticipated living into has changed. It’s not going back. It will never be the same. I’m not making any arguments about whether that is good or bad. . . . What I want to say today is that there are those among us who are mourning. What are we going to do about it?” My colleague quotes Paul who says to the church in Rome, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). He claims that “our first responsibility is to try to empathize with each other’s experience,” but the thrust of his admonition is aimed at those of us who are celebrating, not grieving.  He challenges us to be “wounded healers” (He...

In 2 Samuel 6 David is now king over Israel. David has successfully brought the northern tribes and the tribe of Judah together, and he has established Jerusalem as the new capital and wants to bring the Ark of the Covenant there. The Ark was Israel’s most ancient symbol of the presence of God among the people. It was a chest made of wood and plated with gold. Its lid of solid gold was called the mercy seat. Two cherubim, which were angel like figures stood at opposite ends of the mercy seat. The Ark had been shelved for a long time in the house of Abinadab and now David wants to bring it to Jerusalem. The story in 2 Samuel 6 begins with dancing and ends with dancing, but in the middle there is mourning. God rains death on the parade when Uzzah is struck down trying to steady the ark on the cart and that stops the procession in its tracks. David is both angry and afraid. David tells everyone to go home and the Ark is stored in the house of Obed-edom. I bet he thought, “How d...

Kevin DeYoung, pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan recently wrote a piece titled, “40 Questions for Christians Now Waving Rainbow Flags.” He laments that some within his evangelical ranks (friends, family members, church members) are “giving their hearty ‘Amen’” to a practice he thinks is a sin and is bad for the country. He poses these questions to “Bible believing Christians,” whom he also calls followers of Jesus. Many of the questions he asks relates either directly or indirectly to his limited and restricted view of what it means to be Bible believing. I am certainly a follower of Jesus, but in what sense am I a Bible believer? Whenever the term “believer” appears in the New Testament it refers to those who trust Jesus as Lord and are committed to following him, not people who believe that God’s way and will has been encapsulated and codified in a book, as sacred and helpful as that book may be. That book was not even assembled until several c...

When President Obama spoke to the nation after the Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage he urged respect for the opponents of same-sex marriage whose views are "based on sincere and deeply held beliefs." Then he said, “There is so much more work to be done to extend the full promise of America to every American. But today, we can say in no uncertain terms that we've made our union a little more perfect. That's the consequence of a decision from the Supreme Court, but more importantly, it is a consequence of the countless small acts of courage of millions of people across decades who stood up, who came out, talked to parents, parents who loved their children no matter what, folks who were willing to endure bullying and taunts, and stayed strong, and came to believe in themselves and who they were, and slowly made an entire country realize that love is love. What an extraordinary achievement, but what a vindication of the belief that ordinary peo...

The Supreme Court’s landmark decision now makes same-sex marriage the law of the land which Christians can and should support. Here’s why. First, Christians can support same-sex marriage because there is nothing anti-Christian about it. Some Christians speak of marriage as if there is a clear, consistent, unchanging biblical model. For example, i n  a statement issued by Ronnie Floyd of the SBC and signed by 16 past presidents they affirmed, among other things, “What the Bible says about marriage is clear, definitive, and unchanging. We affirm biblical, traditional, natural marriage as the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant for a lifetime. The Scriptures’ teaching on marriage is not negotiable.”   The problem, however, which more Christians are coming to see, is that there simply is no “clear, definitive, and unchanging” biblical view. Consider how polygamy was practiced throughout the biblical world without a single bible verse condemning ...

While Southern Baptists have been vocally repenting of their support for slavery and Jim Crow since 1995, they have done virtually nothing to actually make amends. One of their own members, an African American pastor,  noted  that if the SBC was serious they would champion policies that would actually make a difference, such as criminal justice reform, education reform, and the alleviation of child poverty (and we could add others like immigration reform and confronting voter suppression laws). So, did Southern Baptists make any attempt to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance when they met in Columbus for their annual meeting (the hate killing of the Emanuel Nine took place after their convention)? Oh no, it was oppositional energy that fueled the fire, not a vision for the common good. Instead they passed a  resolution  against same-sex marriage asserting that traditional marriage is the clear teaching of Scripture. In  a statement supporting the re...