Power in a Promise
Think about this. If making predictions is what God’s Word is all about, then human freedom is fake. But the prophets weren’t making predictions. They were making promises. You can bet your life on the difference.
Christ Conceived
As the Christian church sings the ancient song of the promised child this season, how hard must be the work of words in Newtown, Connecticut. There, for hundreds—or shall we say thousands? shall we say all who are paying attention?—some promised child is no longer in promise.
Ready the Mind
It is hard to speak in the aftermath of great harm. In Newtown, Conn., where the dead are not yet buried, songs, silence, embraces, candles— these matter. Lots of words don’t. Politicians are mostly awkward with real speech and real feeling, yet they are given the microphones. Over and over, they stutter the word awful tragedy, as if saying it could soothe the ravening beast. It does not.
The Past Has Passed
There are things to do to prepare for Christ. First, see this fact of our nature. Our rooms are all filled up. Every room is booked solid, all day, every day. We tell that there was no room in the inn for Jesus. Hah! When it comes to our stable personalities, there is not room for Christ in our feed trough, not room in the hay croft, not room in the closet or the cupboard or the cup! What’s filling us up? Our thoughts and our judgments.
A World in Tumult
A.World.In.Tumult-TIA from The Inward Arc series Texts on Sunday, December 2, 2012 Jeremiah 33: 14-16; Luke 21: 25-36 Jesus says There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. Really? A lot of people awfully excited by the “end of the Mayan calendar” sure think so....What’s Freedom For?
Misleaders claim that your cherished American liberty is about your freedom to do what you want where you want when you want without, as they love to say, government interference. Freedom from interference, freedom to buy stuff. This superficial promise of freedom from interference has always been dangled before “the mass of men, leading lives of quiet desperation” (Thoreau) to distract them from their inner crisis and their social crisis.
Recent Comments