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By Kristin Swenson
The first Bible class I took in college made me angry. For a mild-mannered Midwesterner these are big words, and I surprised even myself. I fumed as the professor taught that Isaiah's "for unto us a child is born" wasn't written about Jesus, and rolled my eyes in exasperation when he explained that we can't say for sure exactly what Jesus really said. I am now that professor. Wonders never cease.
By Julie Clawson
When I embarked on the journey of planting a church, one thing I didn't expect was the "denomination" issue. When we “planters” told people who we were, they’d ask, "What denomination are you?" (The first question was "What’s a church planter?", we had to clarify that the process involved starting a new church, not a garden). To the denomination question the answer (at least for us) was easy—nondenominational. But that just didn’t make sense to most of the people we encountered.
By Stan Wilson
Luke 16:19-31
Sunday, September 30
Great chasm
I spent most of the day after Hurricane Katrina checking on members, especially older ones, in and around Clinton, Mississippi, where I live. Clinton did not sustain serious damage, but we lost all power and lots of trees and roofs, and there was a palpable sense of fear and anxiety. Cars lined up immediately for gas, stores closed, evacuees packed the shelters, and the locals feared a serious shortage or crisis.
You’ve seen them, maybe you’re one of them: pastors who must be in touch at all times. The cell phone is either in use or strapped handily onto the belt, ready to be pulled out at a moment’s notice. It’s best as a Blackberry or Treo, so it can vibrate every ten minutes with news of new messages. And just in case those fail, a beeper should be handy. You can never be too wired.
By Sarah S. Howell
For almost a year now, I have been corresponding regularly with William Barnes (“Tim”), prisoner #0020590 at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. Tim is on Death Row for the 1990 murder of two people.
Tim converted to Islam while in prison and we converse often about his religion and mine. Tim is not afraid to share his faith or to ask pointed questions about Christianity. Once he asked how Jesus could be born of Mary and also have in him the fullness of God. Tim couldn’t make sense of this, and it became my task to explain the Christian belief in the humanity and divinity of Christ. As a religion student, I am used to using and hearing words like “eschatological” and “soteriology”: to have to delineate the fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith is humbling.
By Jo Bailey Wells
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; 1 Tim 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13
Sunday, Sept 23
Squandering and scattering
Every time I come to the parable of the dishonest manager, I’m baffled. Superficially it just doesn’t add up. Does Jesus really commend as our role model “a manager of unrighteousness”? So this narrative makes us listen extra carefully and read extra slowly, as we figure out in what way this parable depicts the kingdom of heaven. As with any storytelling, the choice of language and the particular detail given will provide the clues—usually in the first couple of sentences.
In these days of voluminous e-mailboxes, I’m always glad for the weekly columns by J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine. An engaging writer who is refreshingly candid about the charismatic-Pentecostal world, Grady is a solid believer in the gifts of the Spirit and admittedly conservative on most social issues. But he also chides charismatics who abandon common sense and critical thinking, and occasionally risks the disfavor of readers with his relatively liberal views on such issues as immigration and the lack of opportunity for talented women ministers.
Amy Frykholm’s article on pastors and porn quotes a former sex addict who describes the dynamics that lead to such addiction: a low-paying, high-demand job done in a pressure-cooker of loneliness that yields a posture of merit: “I deserve this.” The article leads me to ask: what’s the Christian response to pornography? John Paul II liked to say that pornography is not wrong because it reveals too much, but because it reveals too little. That seems spot on. It also seems to me that a posture of merit, the demand that “I deserve this” bit of faux intimacy, is best met with the Eucharist, literally our “thanksgiving,” in which we turn from a posture of self-regard to one of gratitude. Any other thoughts on the Christian answer to porn?
By Kevin Baker
When I head to the ocean, I generally engage in two types of fishing: pole fishing and net fishing. One is done in the ocean, off of a pier or off the shore; the other is done in the less tumultuous sound, where I can wade, scan for schools of fish, and throw and retrieve unencumbered.
Although pole fishing is not an exact science, a person who goes pole fishing generally has a "target fish" in mind. Ask a pole fisher, "What are you fishing for?” and you’ll get a response like “Drum, Spanish mackerel, blues or flounder.” The experienced pole fisher, one who takes the time to get to know which fish are striking what kind of lure or bait, is usually successful at catching what he or she desires.
By Jo Bailey Wells
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10
Sunday, September 16
Lost things and lions
All of the lectionary texts for this week address lost things. In Jeremiah, a people and a city; in 1 Timothy, a blasphemer and a Roman citizen; in Luke, a sheep and a coin.
Perhaps they might lead us to suppose the Bible is all about lost things. I expect that’s what the Pharisees and scribes listening to Jesus’ parables might have supposed. Jesus begins, “Which of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one…” —inviting them to identify with the hard-working shepherd who labors over his irresponsible and sometimes unreliable sheep. I confess as a priest and professor I can lapse into the same mode: why don’t people show up when they say they will? Why can’t students get their papers to me on time? Of course, I’m responsible and reliable to the utmost, never late for anything and meticulous in following up the minutest particulars. . .just like the woman searching methodically to complete her count of coins.
By Julie Clawson
I grew up in a Texas dispensationalist church (I'm sure they would merely call themselves a “biblical” church). Most of my experiences there occurred in the youth group. But this was no games and cool music youth group. It was a “sit and listen to hour-long sermons, read lots of books, attend seminars, and make fun of those not like us” group. Being a Christian meant cramming oneself with knowledge about the Bible. We had to know exactly how to argue people into the faith and how to show them that whatever they believed (atheist, pagan, Catholic or Baptist) was completely wrong. I loved it. As a nerd who prided herself on her good grades, this was a religion I could relate to. My "faith" was all about facts and knowledge. So while most of the youth group dreaded attending (their parents made them), my small group of friends and I loved being know-it-all star Christians.
By Louis R. Carlozo
Depending on which story you believe, Elvis Aaron Presley either frequents the back-road Burger Kings of America, is in a witness protection program, runs guns as an African mercenary with Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, inhabits an alien planet after surviving an UFO abduction. . . or, he Left the Building for Good on August 16, 1977.
The overwhelming majority of Elvis fans, who “get” that the King died sad, addicted and lonely, might find solace in the words of Mary Ann Mobley, a 1959 Miss America who acted alongside Presley in the 1965 films “Harum Scarum” and “Girl Happy.” “I’ve heard all the stories about what happened to him later in his life,” says Mobley. “I feel like those of us who knew him let him down. I’ve spoken with Joe Esposito, his road manager, many times—a lot of people tried to help him, but maybe if some of us had called him and said, ‘Come on up’. . . .I think his life closed in on him.”
Mobley, who plans to be in Memphis to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Elvis’s passing, points out a fact that sometimes gets lost in all the hullabaloo of candlelight fan vigils, cheap Elvis bobbleheads and armies of Elvis impersonators (skydiving outfits optional): The King, for much of his life, looked up to a ruler of a higher strata: Jesus Christ.
By Jo Bailey Wells
Jeremiah 18:1-11; Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-33
Sunday, September 9
The church’s hymnody too readily assumes that the potter-clay imagery in scripture is only about God exerting unilateral power and God’s people being passive. Consider “Have Thine Own Way Lord” (p. 382 in the Methodist Hymnal), or the chorus I grew up with in England: “You are the potter/I am the clay/Help me to be willing/To let you have your way.”
I’d humbly like to suggest that this refrain is far from the whole picture.
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