Ponderings on a Faith Journey

Amin is a Muslim friend with whom I have had many a conversation about things of faith, family, and the world. A group of us get together when we can to have conversations -- we usually gather at a local Tim Horton's and generally are sent packing at closing time. Amin contacted me to see if some of us could gather -- his invitation was last minute so most were unsure of gathering. But Amin and I could get together if nothing else. So we did. At first, it was just the two of us. We talked about religion, politics, the community in which we live. In the course of our conversations, the various eastern churches came up -- perhaps because my son is going to focus his thesis on medieval hagiography comparing a figure from the Church of the East (Iraq) and a Muslim figure yet to be determined. Whatever it was that we were discussing at the moment, a young man sitting nearby turned to us, noting he had overheard us talking. He revealed to us that he is a Coptic (Egyptian) Christian. So…

Amos8:1-12 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
8 This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. 2 He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel;
    I will never again pass them by.
3 The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”
says the Lord God;
“the dead bodies shall be many,
    cast out in every place. Be silent!” 4 Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
    and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over
    so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
    so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
    and practice deceit with false balances,
6 buying the poor for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
    and selling the sweepings of the wheat.” 7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
8 Shall not the land tremble on this acco…

SACRED MISINTERPRETATION: Reaching Across the Christian-Muslim Divide. By Martin Accad. Foreword by Gabriel Said Reynolds. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2019. Xxx + 366 pages.
There is much that Christians and Muslims share in common. We claim a common inheritance from Abraham. We both venerate in some form or another Jesus. At the same time, there is much that separates us. Part of what separates us from one another is our differing understandings of who Jesus is. Christians have, traditionally, affirmed the doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity of Christ (the second person of the aforementioned Trinity). Muslims consider Jesus to be one of the great prophets of God, but they reject both the Trinity and the divinity of Christ. The story of Christian-Muslim relations, therefore, is a complicated one. It involves differences in theology, but also crusades, colonialism, and the conquest of formerly Christian lands by Muslim forces. Both sides have killed each othe…

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 …