A Fresh Perspective

How long, Lord? I suspect we have all asked that question haven’t we? We may have asked that question after weeks or perhaps months or maybe even years of our own struggle or a loved one’s struggle with a serious illness. We may have asked out of the despair of a deep betrayal or a marriage or partnership driven and tossed upside down by one conflict after another. Or it may have been after months of trying to find work related to our skills and training. How Long, Lord? We cry. The widow in our story who was a victim of injustice must have felt that way? “Grant me justice” she keeps crying out to the unjust judge. It’s interesting that Luke interprets this parable as a call to pray always and not lose heart, which reminds us of Jesus’ earlier teaching on prayer in Luke 11 where Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened.” Asking is an important part of any relationship and it’s an important part of our relationship wi...

The text today from Jeremiah is really quite remarkable when you think about it. Some texts, of course, simply perpetuate the status quo, even offering justifications for national exceptionalism, violence, and the stratification of society. But other texts turn the tables. There are texts that critique, confront, and challenge the status quo. These break out texts tend to transcend historical context and culture. When I look at scripture I see degrees and levels of inspiration and authority. My take on it is that some scriptures are more inspired that other texts and advance the ball way down the field. Today’s reading from Jeremiah is a break out text. The word that the New Oxford Annotated Bible uses to describe this text is revolutionary. The reason that word is used by the author of the comments on Jeremiah in the Oxford Annotated Bible is because the text seems to move far beyond where most of the people were at that stage in Israel’s religious evolution and development. Inst...

The late Ken Chafin, who was a Baptist professor, minister, and something of a statesman, tells about a friend in college who use to preach a lot in some of the small country churches not far from the campus. Chafin would get a card from his friend saying something like: 35 saved in rival at the Mossy Bottom Baptist Church. Chafin thought that was pretty good since they only had about 25 members. This pricked his curiosity, so one evening he drove out to hear him preach. It was a Friday night and his friend’s sermon that evening was on the Great White Throne Judgment. The text came out of the book of Revelation. The preacher was decked out in white: white suit, white tie, white shirt, white belt, and even white shoes. He thundered from the pulpit that if you didn’t become white as snow through the blood of the lamb you would find yourself literally in one hell of a predicament, a hell of fire and brimstone. Chafin said that he didn’t think he was going to get home that night until the...

This Jesus story like other stories Jesus tells has a way of shocking us into thoughtful reflection. I love the story of the pastor who called a special meeting to call attention to the run down condition of the church facilities. He began by asking for pledges and he turned first to one of his more prosperous deacons. Brother, ‘so and so,’ would you like to start the pledging.” This deacon responded, “I’ll pledge five dollars.” About that time a piece of plaster fell from the ceiling and thumped this deacon right on the head knocking him to the floor. After he picked himself up and dusted himself off he said, “What I meant to say was that I pledge fifty dollars.” At that moment the pastor looked up toward heaven and shouted, “Hit him again, Lord!” This is a story (as so many of the sayings and stories of Jesus) that has the potential to “hit” us, to give us pause to reflect and to be changed by it. One of the beautiful and yet difficult things about Jesus’ parables is the multiple ...

Christian leaders and churches need to admit that we have done a poor job in teaching parishioners how to read biblical texts critically. Perhaps Christians wouldn’t believe and do such silly things   if they had been taught to read the Bible critically before trying to appropriate it spiritually. The Revised Common Lectionary on the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost of Year C pairs Exodus 32:7-14 with Luke 15:1-10, providing Christian preachers a wonderful opportunity to talk about the importance of reading the biblical text critically, honestly facing the inconsistencies. In Exodus 32, Moses goes up to the mountain to talk with God and receive God’s instructions. Meanwhile, the people God brought out of Egypt grow impatient and decide to make an image and worship the image. So God says to Moses,  “I have seen this people, how stiff necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn against them and I may consume them, and of you I will make a great nation.”...

In your worship bulletin I have included a quote by Richard Rohr who points out that biblical texts mirror the nature of human consciousness. He says the Bible “includes within itself passages that develop the prime ideas and passages that fight and resist those very advances.” He says that we might even call it “faith and unfaith.” I would not not call it “unfaith” I would call it unhealthy faith, or bad faith. Both good faith and bad faith, says Rohr, are “locked into the text.” The Bible mirrors or own faith struggles. In other words, good faith and bad faith are both part of our sacred tradition , which is why it is so important to read a text critically before we read it spiritually. I think it’s time for churches and Christian leaders to admit that we have done a poor job teaching people how to read a biblical text critically. Many Christians have never even attempted it and wouldn’t know how to start. The result has been that we end up believing a lot of contradictory thi...