May the peace of Christ guide your thoughts and prayers today, as we remember the attacks of September 11, 2001. As I ponder where we are twenty years later, I find myself going back not to 2001 but to the ancient times when David was king of Israel. He wrote Psalm 8 when he took …
Babies grow up. When will ‘baby Christianity’ grow up?
This year has taken a huge toll on our lives. Next to the millions who got sick, the rest of us have suffered emotionally and spiritually. We have lived in fear for ten months, and the anxiety will continue for many more months. Our sentiments of love and affection have been put on lockdown, and …
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The Mystery Revealed
The icon is by the very excellent modern Greek iconographer Georgios Kordis, which I downloaded from his website, https://kordis.gallery. It paints the traditional Orthodox iconographic representation of the Nativity: angels giving glory from heaven and announcing to the shepherds on the right, a midwife washing the infant Jesus on the bottom right, a young shepherd …
A Psalm for the time of Covid
Psalm 42 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.When shall I come and behold the face of God?My tears have been my food day and night,while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”These things I remember, as I pour out my soul:how I …
The Emptiness of God
A provocative title? What could I possibly mean by such a seemingly contradictory title? How could I associate emptiness with God? God, who is the fullness of everything? Jesus Christ, whose fullness becomes our fullness? (See Ephesians 3:19 & 4:13.) Ah, but that's the problem with language, with human language! We interpret God's fullness in …
Questions about this website
Is there still a need for me to call this website Ancient Answers? What can ancient thoughts possibly offer in answer to the problems of today? My 'ancient answers' have usually come from the Bible or ecclesial/patristic theology and spirituality. But at the same time that I've looked to ancient answers, I've also been drawn …
The Mystical Power of Prepositions
I was about to start writing a commentary on today's verse, Psalm 139:9-10, when I looked at my weekly email from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks that had arrived yesterday but which I hadn't read yet. You can read it on his website. It is a very eloquent and profoundly theological statement, and in it he quotes …
A speech to end all speeches
By itself the verse highlighted today, Job 12:13, is not particularly remarkable. Ho hum, yes, we know God has wisdom and power, and all other good things. Let’s move on to something more interesting, right? Aha, yes move on and you find yourself in the midst of a very extraordinary speech by a man called Job. …
Majesty on high
Psalm 24 is one of my favorites and it has lent itself to profound use by the Christian church. Christian tradition came to associate this psalm with Easter and Ascension, and that is how George Frideric Handel used it in his masterpiece Messiah. You can watch a fine performance of this segment of Messiah here. …
The Word in Hebrew and Greek
What a towering statement, a highpoint of biblical theology, a pinnacle of human understanding and spirituality. Thousands of years of human search for truth and for God, culminated in this statement by the Gospel writer John. The Word, the Logos was in the beginning - was, which means did not come into being at the …
Ancient Answers 