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 …
I am not going to consider all sixteen “proverbs” nor all three “sermons” in James. His “proverbs,” even long ones that stretch the definition of a proverb, are best understood through meditation, not exegesis. I will therefore leave most of the text alone and invite you to meditate upon it. But given that this was …
Continue reading Poverty, Wealth, Temptation, Life, and Death (James 1:9-16
In this series of essays on Hebrews we have completed our comments on the first two major sections (“Jesus is Superior to Angels,” ch.1-2, and “The Inheritance and The Rebellion,” ch. 3-6) and are ready to turn our attention to the third major section, “The Priesthood, the Temple, and the Covenant” (ch. 7-10). The third …
Being a common word that is used frequently when we talk about salvation, it’s easy to forget that redeem is a fiscal term. It is first used to describe the Israelites salvation from slavery to the Egyptians (Ex. 6:6). In a normal slave transaction, humans are bought and sold. If a person wants to free …
Why is there a “second Law” (the meaning of the word “Deuteronomy”) in the Old Testament? The people of Israel have been desert nomads for 40 years. That is more than a generation of people, so only the old people remember the mighty acts of God: the plagues, the escape from Egypt, the terror of …
In the end death is one of those things we’ll never fully understand. It is inscrutable. From a theological perspective we can say that death is separation from God. This is one of the main points of the second creation narrative. God says, “If you eat of this tree you will certainly die” (Gen. 2:17). …
Here's a saying popular among the monks of Mt. Athos, according to Kyriakos Markides: If you die before you die, you will not die when you die.
Actually, the title has little to do with this essay, but the Tasmanian Devil was always one of my favorite Bugs Bunny characters. I have frequently heard in the last week or so the sentiment that this world is not my home. It is a reference to the old gospel song, “This world is not …
Just Another Jim 