A Fresh Perspective

Sometimes, maybe more times than we ever realize, even with all our good intentions we get in the way of God. It’s interesting how quickly this can happen. At Caesarea Philippi, as they make their way to Jerusalem, Peter makes a revelatory confession, “You are the Messiah.” But no sooner than he makes this confession, it becomes clear that he doesn’t have the faintest idea what it means. After Jesus tells them he is going to be rejected and killed in Jerusalem, Peter takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke him. Jesus calls him “Satan” and says, “Get behind me. For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Keep in mind that Peter functions in the story as the spokesperson and representative for all the disciples. Peter says what the group is saying. So one minute the disciples make a revelatory declaration, then the next minute they are acting as Satan’s emissaries. And Jesus is still being visited by angels and wrestling with wild beasts just as he did in th...

If I was asked to summarize my understanding of the Christian faith in one or two brief statements I would say this. One, being a Christian is about a journey into the discovery and embodiment of the love of God. All authentic religion is about tapping into the Divine Love and Compassion that is at the heart of everything. But what makes Christianity different than other religious traditions is the second thing I would say, namely: The Christian way into the experience and expression of the love of God is by following Jesus. This is fundamental to the Christian confession Jesus is Lord. Christians mean different things when they say Jesus is Lord (conservatives would not mean exactly the same thing as liberals or progressives like myself). However, the common denominator should be all-out commitment to follow Jesus – to model his life and live out his teachings. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Christians today, both conservative and liberal, who are not committed to actually doing ...

Jesus was affirmed as Son of God at his baptism by John, and now he is affirmed once again on the mount that we call the mount of Transfiguration. Actually, it’s not hard to understand why Jesus might need this second affirmation by God. In the passage just prior to the Transfiguration Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to undergo suffering and death. He warns them that they he will be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and then he will rise, that is, he will be vindicated by God. Jesus didn’t need any special revelation to see this coming. He spoke truth to power. He challenged the domination system by preaching the kingdom of God. He continuously violated the holiness code of the gatekeepers and opposed their systems of worthiness. He knew what that would mean, and he tried to prepare his disciples for the same fate. He tells them that they must be willing to lose their lives to gain their lives, and he challenges them to take up thei...

(This article was first published in the Frankfort State Journal, Feb. 2, 2018)     In the Gospel texts that tell the story of Jesus one thing is undeniable. Jesus called disciples. Do you ever wonder why Jesus said, “Follow me,” but never said, “Worship me”? He said to some fishermen, “Follow me and I will teach you how to fish for people.” For whatever reason he invited them to walk away from their vocation of trying to lure fish into a net, and pursue a calling that would involve luring people into a greater purpose and cause that Jesus called the kingdom of God. I like to call it the kin-dom of God, because it’s all about loving relationships. Jesus said, “Follow me and I will teach you how to love God with the totality of your being and love your neighbor as yourself” (see Matt. 22-34-40). This is grounded in the reality that we are all connected and constitute one family. (See Acts 17:22-31 where Paul tells the Athenian philosophers that we are “all God’s o...

Whenever I am in a conversation with another another Christian over some issue, and when the person I am conversing with claims that his or her position is the biblical view, I like to respond by asking, “Which one?” The fact is, there are generally several different biblical views or perspectives on any given theme. One of the things we have become aware of with the discovery of such documents as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary and some other ancient Christian writings is that early Christianity was even more diverse than scholars originally thought. Early Christianity was quite diverse. This is particularly true with regard to the Christian view of salvation. Generally, there is no one biblical view about anything. There are biblical views and emphases. And yet throughout Christian history we have seemingly been obsessed with trying to synthesize and systematize the teachings of scripture. What typically happens is that the one person or group of persons doing the s...