A Fresh Perspective

In Flannery O’Conner’s short story called The Turkey , a little boy named Ruller has a poor self-image because nothing seems to turn in his favor.   At night he overhears his parents talking about him rather negatively about how unusual he is.   One day he is walking  through the woods and happens upon a wild turkey that had been wounded.  He starts after it thinking, “if only I can catch it and go home with that turkey slung over my shoulder they will say, “Look at Ruller with that wild turkey!  Ruller, where did you get that turkey?” And he imagines saying, “Oh, I caught it in the woods. Maybe you would like me to catch you one sometime.”  But then a thought flashes through his mind, “God will probably make me chase that damn turkey all afternoon for nothing.” He feels like it is wrong to think that way about God, and yet he can’t help it.     Ruller finally catches the turkey and starts to think that maybe it’s a sign of God’s cha...

Let’s begin by being clear on what this story does not teach. Martha is busy attending to things, making sure the food is prepared and being the proper host. Mary is setting in the presence of Jesus listening to his teaching. Martha rebukes Mary and even turns to Jesus expecting him to back her up. But Jesus rebukes Martha and commends Mary for choosing the “better part.” Why does he do that? Why does Jesus commend Mary but rebuke Martha? Let’s begin by laying to rest one explanation very quickly. It’s not because contemplation is more important than activism. It’s not because prayer is more important than service. Jesus is not disparaging the active work involved in hospitality, nor is he elevating worship over hospitality. Both work and rest, prayer and ministry, solitude and service,  hospitality and worship are equally important in the grand scheme of the spiritual life. We can trace a pattern in Jesus’ own life of active engagement in teaching, preaching, and healing,...

This teaching on love gets to the heart and soul of God’s will for humanity. Everything else is secondary. I wonder how so many Christians over the years have missed this. I wonder how I did for a significant part of my life and ministry. Matthew’s version of the teaching on love says, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” In other words, these two commandments – to love God with the totality of our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves – constitute the goal and fulfillment of healthy religion and what God longs to see in human relationships and society. Jesus is saying that everything that was good about the Torah and the writings of the classical Hebrew prophets pointed to this ultimate goal, namely, to teach us how to love. (That doesn’t mean, by the way, that everything in the law and the prophets teaches us how to love. Not everything in those writings are helpful in this regard. To assume they are is the fallacy of biblical inerrancy. What Je...

In his book, If the Church Were Christian , Philip Gulley tells about an interesting conversation he had in a local restaurant. Gulley had entered at noon, could see that the restaurant was full and turned to leave. But as he did, an older gentleman who was seated by himself invited Gulley join him. Gulley was familiar with the man only by reputation and knew him to be intelligent, somewhat outspoken, but also capable of great kindness. Gulley also knew that the man self-identified as an agnostic. Gulley initiated the conversation by asking him about the new house he had recently built outside of town in a wooded setting. “It’s just a house,” he said, swatting away the topic as one would a pesky fly. He responded, “What I want to know is why you became a pastor.”  Gulley told him that he found the study of theology interesting, that he valued the sense of community a church provided, and that he found it very meaningful to help others navigate life. The man responded rathe...

Philip Gulley tells about pastoring a small Quaker meeting not far from where he lived when he was still in college. Several months into his tenure there, an elder in the congregation approached him with the news that a man and a woman in the congregation, both of whom were widowed, had begun living together. This elderly couple had met and developed a deep friendship that blossomed into a deep and mutual affection. This elder confronted Gulley: “Did you know they weren’t married? I think you should talk to them. They’re living in sin,” he said. Gulley says that like many people of his generation, he’d been taught that couples who were romantically involved and living together should be married. It was a principle he had never questioned, so he agreed to visit them. Tom and Maggie welcomed Gulley into their modest home, ushered him to the most comfortable chair, and offered him refreshments. Pictures of their respective children and grandchildren lined the walls. Gulley asked ...

When Jesus sets forth his agenda in terms of Isaiah 61 in his synagogue sermon in Nazareth, one of the key aspects of his work is to liberate the oppressed. This story provides a beautiful picture into what that involves. Here is a lost, tortured, battered soul. We are not shown his descent into this state, so we do not know how he became so tortured, so demonized, so broken and lost. He does not know who he is. He is violent, unpredictable, and alone. I suspect that if one could profile all those who have joined terrorist groups over the years one might something similar. He lives among the tombs, which is to say that he lives in the realm of death. That is, he lives in a state of life-diminishment, a state of dehumanization, a state of alienation and oppression. It would be a grave mistake for us to think that this was all his own doing. We do not know the travesties and tragedies he suffered through. We know nothing about his life growing up, what events transpired or e...