The Little Friar

I've often been struck by the way Jesus' parables are preached in the Church.  Several years ago, I taught a preaching class.  Since it was Year A of the Lectionary (as it has been this year), I had students preaching from Matthew's parables.  It didn't take me long before I noticed they all  had the same, basic homiletical structure:  First, they'd narrate the basic plot (historical context and such).  Then, they'd proceed, with lots of pastoral "sensitivity", to talk about the parable's moral dimension in providing us a "balanced" ethical vision.  Preachers gotta be careful to keep away from any aweful "extreme" applications, after all.   So when Jesus says to sell everything, it’s not about  possessions , it's about the state of your  heart  -- and so on.  I also very vividly remember my response.   A congregation's first response, I told them, upon hearing a sermon on a parable of Jesus, ought to be dread .  These...

The Lectionary gospel text for tomorrow is Matthew 25.15-30, also known as the Parable of the Talents.   And it's a preacher's dream text for Stewardship Sunday drives.  So I'm sure that's the direction so many of us will be going in our sermons.   But I think that's all wrong . First, there's that ambiguous word, "talents".  In Greek, it's just "money", but so many of us have heard this parable associated with Stewardship for so long, that we automatically think that trio of "time, talents and treasure".  Then there's verse 30, which no preacher ever preaches in context, so I always advise preaching students just to leave it alone.  There's also the  incredible increase of ten talents and three talents doubling in their value due to the commitment and industry of the faithful servants, and the inevitable impulse to think that anytime a King gets mentioned, it's got to be God showing up in the parable.  Even before a...

I was reading this morning in Daniel 10, and was struck by something said by the angel.  An angelic messenger has come to answer Daniel's prayer.  And as is often the case in the Bible when people are confronted with angelic messengers, Daniel is frightened and falls to the ground.  And, in keeping with the script, the angelic messenger speaks reassurances.  These reassurances often fit a standard form, a simple, "Do not fear, O highly favored/chosen one!" But the reassurance given by the angel in Daniel 10.19 struck me as being particularly tender.  Perhaps the most tender reassurance in all of the Bible.  Here it is from the NRSV:  "Do not fear, greatly beloved, you are safe.  Be strong and courageous!" I just love that!  "Do not fear, greatly beloved, you are safe". That one greeting encapsulates the whole Gospel.  And it's my vote for the most tender greeting in the whole Bible.  I think what strikes me is the expression of...

I was ordained in 1997.  Though I was active all through college and seminary as a lay minister, there are some things I was never told and didn't expect about life in ministry.   1.  The wonders of presiding in worship (well, maybe not weddings so much, unless the couple loves what a wedding does and says Christianly ). 2.  Working with an abundance of self-giving ministers among the laity.   3.   The lawn mowing and gardening teams who keep the properties looking loved.   4.  The questions about faith and life and the deep discussions about things that matter.  5.  Being allowed to attend the dying, when we gather and sit and pray a person into the next part of their journey.  As well as the opportunity to be with those whose lives will never be the same reaching out to each other, healing old wounds, being honest (not always -- but often).  6.  Preparing for and giving sermons -- a process that almost always brings me n...

Every minister inevitably faces burnout.  Those of us who are discouraged should take a step back, and consider a few questions.  These questions have always allowed me some space and focus when I needed them.  1.  How has God used the labors of faithful ministers in the past to lay a foundation for your Christian life today?   2.  Has God ever  ever used you -- in much the same way -- to mentor a future pastor, missionary, teacher?   3.  How has God used you in ministry outside your local church? 4.  Has God given you the gift of writing to produce a written legacy of faith and devotion for others? 5.  Has God given you the opportunity to sit beside a dying member of your church?  (This is always a humbling, experience, to be brought into another's confession, that confirms my ministry.) 6.  Are there people whose faith has been strengthened under your ministry? 7.  Consider the most difficult tim...

Daniel Bennett's Passion for the Fatherless: Developing a God-Centered Ministry to Orphans  is a book that highlights the Gospel's call for the Church to embrace care for orphans as one of the central parts of the Church's mission.  With a theological perspective and a pastoral heart, Bennett has given the Church practical advice for how local churches and individual Christians care for orphans -- in whatever form that care might take.  Orphan ministry is anything but easy, precisely because that ministry embraces so much brokenness.  But Bennett points beyond that brokenness, and all the tragedies upon which that brokenness is based, to the Good News of Jesus Christ.  The worship of the Incarnate One, Bennett says, begins when we care for "the least of these".  And it's built upon the Christian hope that one day, those broken children's lives will find love and healing in our love of them.  The goal of orphan ministry, Bennett rightly claims, isn't cr...

I have four different book projects in various states of completion: Faith Thinking: An Introduction to Theology for Students  will be the first to be published, probably in January 2015.  Thinking: An Introduction to Philosophy for Students  will be available in early 2015. The goal is by February.   God Gets What God Wants: Biblical & Theological Essays on Trinitarian Universalism  will be available in mid-2015. My goal is June or July.  And finally, I'm aiming for  Good News: Principalities, Powers & Preaching  to be published in late 2015 (October or November).

Johnnie Moore, in his new book What am I Supposed to Do with My Life? God's Will Demystified , tackles one of the most popular myths I've encountered with Christians:  That God's will is somehow "mysterious" and nearly undiscernable.  Whether on college campuses, in pastoral counseling, or in spiritual direction, the question inevitably arises:  "How can I know God's will for my life?"  "How can I know if this decision is what God wants me to do?" is the way I most often hear it.  And underlining those questions is a fear that being a disciple of Jesus can be done wrongly , but it's a fear based on a faulty foundation.  Which means, ultimately, that fear and those questions are demonic, and they land Christians in a hellific tortured life.   So What am I Supposed to Do with My Life?  provides pastoral wisdom, filled with grace and spiritual direction, that leads away from that fear and out of that hellish existence, toward a discerning ...

Foundations of Spiritual Formation:  A Community Approach to Becoming Like Christ , edited by Paul Pettit, is a volume for every seminarian and would-be ordinand.  It's a corrective to the wild-eyed idealism of seminary, in that it habituated habits of spiritual formation long before bad habits of idealism in seminary set it.   The book itself breaks down into two parts.  The first establishes the  theological and Biblical groundwork for spiritual formation.  The second tackles all the technical "know-how".  But it's the second section that deals with material I found most rewarding.  I was ordained nearly eighteen years ago.  When I left school, I took a certification in spiritual direction, because I had already discovered that my ministry was impoverished by a lack of training in spirituality.  This book is another great tool for practitioners that deals in lots of great pastoral-theological material.  Klaus Isler addresses issue...

Theologically, Rudolf Bultmann and I are about as diametrically opposed to one another as anyone might be.   But there's a story I share today because it should be shared often.  On the morning after that first Nazi pogrom, "Kristallnacht", the regular lecture of Rudolf Bultmann was to take place. His usual hall was on the third floor in the south east corner of the building with windows on two sides.  For years the view had included the Synagogue of Marburg; but now, it was a smoking foundation. Bultmann walked in at his usual time to a packed and silent room, everyone braced to hear what he might have to say -- although all were now fearful to say anything.  He came to the lectern, opened his folder, but immediately turned away from the students, walking over to the windows.  For the entire period, Bultmann stood staring out the window at the empty space and made no sound whatsoever.  At the end of the time he returned to his notes, closed the folder, and...

I was reading Revelation 5 this morning and paused to puzzle over a familiar passage (vv. 11-12): Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,  "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!" (ESV) Why would the Lamb (and elsewhere, God the Father) need to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing? Is he lacking in any of these things? Does he not already possess them? What, in other words, are the creatures giving God here, that is not already his? I then remembered Athanasius' development of The Incarnation of the Word  as the very redemption of all that is.  Christ, the Son of God -- the incarnate, redeeming Word -- both made the universe and in his Incarnation brings that universe to its completion.  And his argument set me...

I didn't go to church this morning.  I haven't gone for some weeks.  And I've been ruminating today over why that is.  The text that comes to my mind again and again is 1 Peter 4.7-11.  Hardly the text most folks think when they think ecclesiology.  But here it is:  " The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers.   Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.   Be hospitable to one another without complaining.   Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.   Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ.  To him belong the glory and the power for ever and ever.  Amen".   This text comes to my mind because ...

Greetings to you in the Name of the Lord! Welcome to the First Church of St I.  We Crucifiers meet every Sunday to lie about Jesus.  The sermon slides off our collective self-image      and into the common cup            to be consumed with the body and blood of our Victim, and so to pass through, changed by us, not us by him.  Greetings to us in the Name of the Lord! The peace of the Lord be with me.      (I'm not worried about with you.) A smile, a handshake       -- it's all a Judas kiss.  Pieces of silver we collect      for service to our Values -- nothing special, just nothing different.  We come to First Church of St I, after all, to be comfortable, above all.  The peace of the Lord be with me. Visitors welcome. Join with me and mine  sometime. 

Today is "Remembrance Sunday".  It's the Sunday closest to November 11th.  It's the Sunday closest to Remembrance Day -- or "Veteran's Day" in America -- that has historically been devoted to remembering the dead of war (especially that "Great War", the hundredth anniversary of which is 2014).   I hate , I despise our wars.  But I don't hate our soldiers.  The fallen dead of our wars are a stench that rises up to God.  Because of it, he does not accept our sacrifices.   Even though we bring him prayers and sacrifices of praise today, he doesn't accept them.  Away with all the noise of our patriotic anthems.  God doesn't listen to all our worshipful posturing on days like today.  Instead, let justice roll on like a river.  Let righteousness flow like a roaring stream -- until the waters of God's Kingdom's peace wash over all the earth, and destroy our wars.  See, I'm convinced engaging in armed conflict goes against every...

I awoke this morning from a frightening and sad dream.  And I was struck how instantly I tried to rush from the sadness to happiness, to reassure myself that "all's right in the world ... It was just a dream".  Why did I do that?  1.  The precursor to the human smile was the caveman's grimace.   The invention of dentistry is the main difference between this threatening grimace and the polite social convention of the modern smile.   2.  In the Protestant West today, smiling has become a moral imperative.  The smile is regarded as the objective externalisation of a well ordered life.  Sadness is moral failure.  3.  The motif of late-capitalist society is the stylization of happiness, the cultivation of lifestyles from which every trace of sadness has been expunged.  Peter Berger identified "the Protestant smile" as part of Protestantism's cultural heritage in the West.  In a Catholic country like France, it's still cons...

I'm in the midst of editing and reviewing -- for what I hope is the last  time -- my book that introduces philosophy.  Since it's written as an ordinary introduction (for high school and college students), one of my themes in editing has been simple, short sentences.  I've  been trying to use a greater variety of sentence types in my writing, and I have particularly been laboring to achieve good short sentences.  It's harder than it sounds.  I've  also begun to notice that many students could improve their writing dramatically merely by setting their sights on shorter sentences.  Many students have somehow got the assumption that scholarly writing requires a certain tone of voice.  I don’t know where this assumption comes from.  I'm inclined to blame it on the rhetorical posturing of well-meaning but fundamentally inept high school English teachers -- the kind of teacher who promotes "critique" and "decoding" of "texts" instead of e...

Because I live in an area with lots of evangelicals, I find myself hearing often that all it takes to being a Christian is "accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior", and this primarily through means of praying "the sinner's prayer". I  always find this language jarring.  Especially from conservative and evangelical Christians who value the Bible so highly.   Because where, ever, in the whole of the Bible does anyone, ever, ask someone to say a prayer "accepting Jesus into your heart"?  It's just simply not there.  So why do Bible-thumping people keep saying it? I've even heard people speak of "grace alone" in the same sentence with "accepting Jesus into your heart".  To my thinking this is where the whole idea should fall apart in evangelical circles.  Is not praying a prayer and receiving Jesus a kind of a saving work?  Any "have to's" should raise the red flag of a works gospel.  Too technical?  Mayb...

Yesterday was Election Day in America.  I didn't vote.  And the elections decided nothing grand for me.   Jesus is still King of every elected or non-elected political figure or office.  I am still his loyal subject.  And whatever vote I cast -- I didn't vote yesterday -- is cast everyday , in how I live my life as a subject of my King.  So I don't care one whit that the Republicans have gained control of the Legislative branch.   Because Walt Whitman was right:  " America, it may be, is doing very well upon the whole, notwithstanding these antics of the parties and their leaders, these half-brained nominees, the many ignorant ballots, and many elected failures and blatherers".   Nothing much has changed on the fifth of November, from the third of November.   Voting, it turns out, isn't the most significant political practice we Christians do.  All of this is not born out of some animosity toward "America".  I don't "hate" it, ...

Just in the past year, I've learnt that I love to cook.  And I particularly enjoy the versatility of our slow cooker and our cast-iron skillet.  So imagine how excited I was to discover One Pot:  120+ Easy Meals  from Your Skillet, Slow Cooker, Stockpot   and More .  And by none other than Martha Stewart.  One Pot  is most useful for its easy, healthy recipe options for chefs on the go.  The book is divided into different sections, for cooking with a variety of means (from Dutch Oven to slow cooker).   The main focus, though, is on soups and entrees.   And  One Pot  is definitely infused with Martha Stewart taste, including a slightly austere and sterile feeling.  While it's not as creative with receipts, and certainly not with ingredients, this cookbook is a fine one for beginners.   _______________ I received this book free, from the  Blogging for Books  program, in exchange for my honest re...