Christos Anesti! I’m quite fond of "Greek Easter," as Mr. Panos called it fifteen years ago. Even though we’ve never been part of the local Greek parish, over the years, we’ve come to call Pascha “Greek Easter” (in contrast to “American Easter”) in our household in honor of Mr. Panos. There is a sense in …
Last Thursday was one of those high wind, low humidity, fire watch days that are not uncommon in Spring. Unfortunately, a barn in our neighborhood caught on fire, which spread to the adjoining field. It was big enough that the fire departments from the three closest towns were called in, so it was a day …
Yesterday (Nov 26) marked the end of the church calendar as it is observed in the Western church. It was also my saint day, in the Eastern church; thanks be to God for St James the Solitary. Our son invited us down to Omaha on Saturday night for dinner at a southern style restaurant (shrimp …
We all know the rule: every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. But what if a story has more than one middle? What if, in one of these “stories with two middles,” when you removed one of the middles, turns out to be not much of a story at all? I’ve been …
Last week I wrote about justice in terms of “forming and filling.” God formed creation in a particular manner and filled that creation in a particular manner so that everything worked properly and fit together properly. Injustice occurs when we don’t follow the divine pattern set forth by God. A few days after writing that …
There are two legitimate ways to translate Gen 1:1, depending on how the verb “to create” is understood. That verb is roughly equivalent to the English perfect tense and can either be understood as ongoing activity or as a snapshot of a process. The NRSV opts for understanding creation as an ongoing activity, and renders …
Nothing speaks of death quite as eloquently as Thanksgiving. Not surprisingly, that’s not how we Americans approach the matter come the end of November. We associate Thanksgiving with turkey and stuffing and cranberries and pie. We associate it with family gatherings, and maybe even family fights. More recently, Thanksgiving has become the locus of our …
There is a biblical sensibility that privilege comes with responsibility. Paul goes into some detail about this in Rom. 2. God’s people, because they were given the law by God (which is divine grace, a privilege from God), will be held to a higher standard of life. He then asks, what advantage is there to …
The first section of Hebrews is often entitled, “The Son is Superior to Angels.” Many commentators call the next section, “The Son is Superior to Moses.” There is a certain logic to this because in 3:3 the author says that “Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.” But this is actually a …
Continue reading A Primer on Avoiding the Rebellion (Heb. 4-6)
We have a line of bushes along the edge of the house that are slowly dying and need to be removed. When they were put in (before we owned the house) the ground was covered with landscape fabric and then filled with lava rock. The rock needs to be removed before we can proceed with …
Just Another Jim 