Ponderings on a Faith Journey

Luke 10:25-37

Who wouldn’t want to be a “Good Samaritan?” We’re so used to connecting the word “good” to the character of the Samaritan it’s easy to miss the scandalous nature of this parable. What if there’s nothing good about a Samaritan? No one in Jesus’ audience would have applied the word “good” to a “Samaritan.” Do you still want to be a Good Samaritan?  If you go back to chapter nine, you’ll discover that Jesus ran into trouble in Samaria. He was turned away from a village because he was heading toward Jerusalem. Fortunately, Jesus didn’t follow the advice of James and John who wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume the village, but that goes to show that something is up in the story of the Good Samaritan (Lk 9:51-56).
Not long after Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan villagers, he sent out the seventy to preach. After they returned from their mission trip, Jesus was approached by a lawyer. Now, I need to let you know that Luke doesn’t seem to like lawyers. I’m not sure…

A colleague recently opened a conversation on Facebook about labels. He confessed his discomfort with the label Progressive Christian. He asked his Facebook audience if they had any suggested alternatives. You can only imagine the response. I thought about entering in, but your voice quickly gets lost in the mass of comments. So, I decided to write a blog post instead.
Both Phil and I are Disciples of Christ pastors. Both of us are left of center on the political and religious spectrum, though I imagine he is farther left than am I. I too am uncomfortable with the available labels, which tend to be more political than theological. The words liberal and conservative have lost their original meanings, and for many on the "left" liberal is old hat. So, progressive has been adopted. Here's the thing, the opposite of progressive isn't conservative, it's regressive. If we take the word seriously, then it's opposite becomes a pejorative. If you disagree with me, th…

Amos 7:7-17 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
7 This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “See, I am setting a plumb line
    in the midst of my people Israel;
    I will never again pass them by;
9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
    and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
    and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
    and Israel must go into exile
    away from his land.’”

12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; 13 but never again …

CONNECTIONS: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship. Year C, Volume 3: Season after Pentecost.Edited by Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, and Cynthia L. Rigby. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019. Xviii + 562 pages.

I am a lectionary preacher. The Revised Common Lectionary may not be perfect, but it does provide a sound basis for preaching that is rooted in Scripture. I’m of the belief that preaching, that becomes a word of God (using Barth’s three-fold Word of God formula) will be rooted in Scripture. Preaching from the Bible, however, does involve interpretation of the text so as to make that word living in the present. It is wise to look to others for wisdom and guidance. The good news is that lectionary preachers have been blessed in recent years by a plethora of new resources. Westminster John Knox Press has been a key contributor to this bounty. Among these treasures is the Connections series, the first cycle of which is now complete (Year C).I …

Luke 7:36-50

The Fourth of July holiday celebrates freedom, but freedom can come in forms that have nothing to do with where you live. Sometimes freedom is internal, which is the case in the story we’ve heard today. It’s a story about a woman who lived in a certain town, who heard that Jesus was having dinner at the home of a wealthy and influential man named Simon. She decided to crash the party.
We need to use our imaginations to picture the scene. Simon and his guests would have been lying on cushions, with their feet toward the wall and the tables probably laid out in an u-shape in front of them. The woman, whose name Luke doesn’t reveal, slipped in unnoticed. She stood at the feet of Jesus and began to weep. When her tears fell on his dusty feet, she knelt down, loosened her hair, and began to wipe the wetness of her tears from his feet. Then she kissed them. Finally, in an act of great sacrifice, she broke open an alabaster jar of ointment and began to anoint his feet.   
If we had…

I have been posting of late on our Disciples identity, especially the need for more theological conversation. One of our strong suits, but also a hindrance to a conversation is an appeal to freedom. Since we're free from any coercive power, imposing a particular theology, why have the conversation? Let everyone believe as they choose.  Being a theologian (a historical theologian in particular) I believe theology is important to our identity and mission. The question for Disciples is how to understand the role of freedom in our life together. Ronald Osborn laid out in detail the role that freedom or liberty played in our origin story. It is intertwined with our pursuit of unity and the question of restoration. Since tomorrow is Independence Day in the United States, what better time to raise the question of freedom than right now? What is the value of freedom and how is it tempered?

 Below you'll find a presentation I gave to the Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Chris…