As the world is once again shocked by another brutal terrorist attack - this time in Brussels - I want to quote some words written by the late, great French theologian and philosopher, Jacques Ellul (1912-94), in his book Living Faith. He wrote of the connection between rigidity and violence, and thus the two faces of violence …
Blessed are the persecuted
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness/justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10) Blessed are YOU, when when people revile you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. (Matthew 5:11) Eight Beatitudes were spoken in the third person plural …
After a Billion Years…
The anticipation has been building the last few days that a big announcement would be made today, and sure enough it came this morning. Gravitational waves have been detected for the first time, the result of two black holes colliding and merging a billion years ago. Einstein predicted their existence a hundred years ago when …
Life is the Politics of Jesus
It's now a week since the Paris attacks and it has been a tense week, with hateful rhetoric flaring up in France and Europe, and the US. I continue to have reservations about Islam and its compatibility with our western values, but I am dismayed by the level of hate speech that has contaminated our ability to look at the world …
Farewell, René Girard
René Girard died November 4th in his home in Stanford, California, at the age of 91. Most probably you haven't read any obituary about him, and I only learned of his death tonight when I went on the Girardian Reflections website. The reason why I went on the website tonight was because for the past few days …
The gospel of peace
How to speak of peace after the terrorist attacks in Paris? And yet peace is the message of both our readings today - especially Ephesians 2, but also the parable of the good Samaritan. Both readings are about peace, about breaking down the walls that separate and divide. Every time there is an …
People of the Second Coming
Touch is the message of today's gospel reading. The poor man Lazarus was untouchable, except by the dogs who licked his wounds! He was one of the invisibles, one of the people that we choose not to see because they might trouble our conscience or our easygoing relationship with life. And he who did not touch …
Where is your god?
Psalm 42 has always been one of my favorites. Like so often in the Psalms, here too the psalmist is besieged by people who mock him for trusting in God. "Where is your God?" they say to him as he suffers torments physical and spiritual. The language of this psalm is pure poetry. The psalmist is …
Big Ben and I
Paul today gives us a glimpse into the connected world of the early Christians. There was no Internet, no cell phones, no Facebook or Twitter - and yet those early Christians were connected! Paul rejoices at the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicos. They made up for the separation and absence of the rest of the …
A wedding banquet Jesus would attend
Here is a marvelous story from today's news to put a smile on anyone's face. A Couple Feeds 4,000 Syrian Refugees on their Wedding Day! And I would think that the one who is smiling the most is our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Jesus often used a wedding feast as an image of God's kingdom. It seems …
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