A Song Isn’t Finished Until It’s Shared…
all we contribute- good or bad has wider impact than we imagine. The stone we throw could sink a steamer or scrap a rowboat, cause sea levels to rise, and wash back up to us. Beyond this, the stones we throw, will outlive us.
This weekend I recorded a song I wrote about 35 years ago. It is a near word for word account of a conversation with a woman who immigrated from Europe to small town New England, where she grew old but never felt accepted. It is the sort of conversation I have had many times since. […]
Usually I keep a novel or two ready on my Kindle on nights when I am not about to fall asleep. Unfortunately, reading 19th century novelists can sometimes keep you up at night. This was my experience with Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu, but was rarely my experience with 18th Century authors, until now. Wieland […]
What is the Prophecy of Isaiah 7? Recently during an episode of American Pickers, I found each commercial break was occupied by advertisement for a show presenting the “truth” about Jesus’ birth. The commercial claimed that the Virgin Birth of Jesus was the result of a mistranslation of the Bible. I am not concerned that […]
At the new pastor’s first day in the parish, he arranged for a visitor to be at the church. He asked a friend, unknown to the people, to dress as a homeless person and come to service. The church was largely older folks, senior citizens and the new pastor would use this as a teaching […]
A popular song asks what Mary knew. But as is often true in the Bible, the people in question knew much more then we think, sometimes more than we ourselves know. For example, have you ever wondered why so many women are named Mary in the Gospels? The name Mary comes from the Hebrew “Miriam” […]
God’s interest in justice flows out of His interest in and love for His Creation. This is at the core of the uniqueness of God’s revelation to the Jewish people. The Greco-Roman world pictured justice as a blind-folded maiden with a scale and a sword. The Torah presents Justice as emanating from an All-Seeing God with a Heart of Compassion.
In The Mind of the Maker, Dorothy Sayers makes some clarifying distinctions about “law” and “laws”. She speaks of laws that are based on consensus, contrasted with laws rooted in nature of things . The second are generally learned by observation and subject to the test of an if/then clause. If an apple is released […]
As Jews and Christians both wrestle how to fit Jewish Believers in a convenient box, it becomes evident that we have forgotten the central question of the New Testament, Can a Gentile be saved? And if so, how? This was question was on the mind of Jesus’ Disciples as the Messiah spoke to a woman […]
Growing up, I was told “Jews don’t believe in Jesus.” Though I was hearing this from the vantage point of Judaism, many Christians have believed, been told, and said the same thing. But the first thing that struck me about the New Testament, when I first read Matthew 1:1 was that this was a Jewish […]
