I watched the film Tolkien, a film that I failed to see on the big screen last year. And very few people did see it! Even the critics took little notice of it - and those critics who did see it hardly had much praise for it. It amazes me how such nonsense as the …
Room for Mercy
At the heart of our Liturgy is Mercy. We say it so often that there's a Greek saying that makes fun of it. But make no mistake, Mercy is at the heart of our faith. And mercy is precisely what is missing in the world today. Everything comes from mercy. And the parable Jesus teaches …
The Commandments of Theocracy
For many years evangelical and fundamentalist Christians in the United States have been fighting for the posting of the Ten Commandments in public buildings, especially courthouses, city halls and legislatures. I have always understood this as only a political move to assert the mythology of America's Christian origins. I see it as political because there …
The Provocative Jesus
Two versions of the same Gospel story, the healing of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter. First, Mark's version: And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose …
When God is rejected
God's love for the world entailed also a love for the nations. The Bible does not shy away from the political overtones of God's ways. But God's desire for the nations has always - without exception - been disappointed. Yes, disappointed - from the very beginning. God's desire was that his people would be "a …
Lights of God rise in the darkness
Over a hundred years ago (in 1915, to be precise) the great German theologian wrote the following, in an essay called "The Righteousness of God": What is the use of all the preaching, baptising, confirming, bell-ringing, and organ-playing, of all the religious moods and modes, the counsels of 'applied religion'....the efforts to enliven church singing, …
A Simple Change in Symbolism
On September 14th the Orthodox Church celebrates the Elevation (or Exaltation) of the Holy Cross. In Byzantium this was more than a holy day. In some respects it was the national holiday of the Byzantine Empire! Consider the primary hymn of the day: O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance. Grant vict'ries to …
