I had a strange three-way conversation on Feb 14 (Ash Wednesday) that was strange because all three of us thought about Lent in a different manner. One person had ashes on their forehead that they had received at an early morning worship service. This person was still trying to decide what to give up for …
During my lunch hour I frequently walk along the Floyd River Trail, which is a block from work. The Floyd is more ditch than river as it passes through town. It’s been channelized with tall levees through Sioux City for flood control (a proper Mississippi river in miniature). The small space between the levees and …
Yesterday (Apr 17, 2022) was the Orthodox feast of “The Entry of the Lord Into Jerusalem” (better known as Palm Sunday). Pascha (Orthodox Easter) will be celebrated on Apr 24 this year. The weekend before Pascha is strange because there is a sense that nothing took hold. It’s a last gasp before rejection and defeat. …
1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. 2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. …
On the Orthodox ecclesiastical calendar the three Sundays before Lent (this year, Feb. 9, 16, 23) are a group called the Triodian: The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, and Judgement Sunday where the sheep and goats text from Mat. 25 is read. In a sense all three …
Poor Mr. Anselm! He's one of the favorite whipping boys for the Orthodox when they complain about where the West went astray in their doctrine of salvation. This has always offended me (yes, "offended" ... I don't think it's too strong a term) because while Anselm was a product of thinking and worldview of the …
With Lent just around the corner I am once again pondering the difference between knowing God and knowing about God. In the circles in which I grew up and was educated, this was a distinction that was not carefully made. I think especially of the books that were particularly celebrated on this subject such as …
Over the next few weeks I would like to revisit some of the big words that relate to our salvation. Many of them are hard and even frightening words, so we have a tendency to ignore them, or in the case of a word like “wrath,” leave them to the very conservative Christians who seem …
A couple of quotes from today's readings that the Australian Anglican Board of Mission put together. The devil sometimes puts ambitious desires into our hearts, so that, instead of setting our hand to the work which lies nearest to us, and thus serving Our Lord in ways within our power, we may rest content with …
Continue reading Imagined Burning Desire vs Actual Burning Bushes
If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy …
Just Another Jim 