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Jesus Creed

What if you think you are going in the right direction but don’t like it or feel empty about it?

Community’s advance and progress and are formed when those communities put away things that destroy and work against community. If quick-to-listen and slow-to-speak are two major characteristics of community, then James 1:21 describes the things that need eradication: 19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and…

David Blankenhorn, in a column in 1997 (and anthologized in a book my class is reading —  Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying (The Ethics of Everyday Life) ), discusses the potential symbolic value of marriage vows. He speaks of two changes in marriage vows today: 1. Modern vows routinely omit…

Most holy and merciful Father: We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. The Celebrant continues We have…

This question befuddles the newspaper industry right now, and newspapers are folding up (or we are seeing paper cuts) everywhere — so what’s the solution? Here’s a line from a recent CNN article: Competition naturally breeds better journalism is the credo of many newspaper veterans. And better journalism means an engaged and informed public. I…

How do humans accomplish God’s will? James tells us that human anger can never bring about God’s will, and he has to be speaking here into (at least) the zealot option of the 1st Century. The Zealots, if you remember, believed God’s will was so urgent that violence was necessary. Notice these words of James:…

In the second chapter of his book Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narratives Peter Bouteneff discusses the uses of the creation narrative in the New Testament. The most important New Testament references are in the Pauline literature – which Bouteneff takes to include Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians.  He considers the Pastoral…

The most significant error among populist evangelical Christians, one heard in almost any adult SS class or Bible study, is docetism. Never put quite that way, belief by many is that Jesus’ humanity is not quite what it seems. In fact, in unguarded moments, many will say something like “Jesus only seemed to be human.”…

It seems every year someone brings up the Bible and alcohol (the drinking kind). My first response, kept to myself but now made public, is this “Yo, have you ever tasted Brunello or a South African wine or a good pint of Boddington’s?” But that doesn’t seem to be the approach needed here. What I…

What are characteristics that form and sustain community? James, the brother of Jesus, has some powerful advice. Here are the words of James 1:19-21: 19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life…
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