The Little Friar

Eberhard Arnold's The Inner Life:  Inner Land -- A Guide into the Heart of the Gospel, Volume 1 , brings some of the most accessible pastoral wisdom of Arnold into our world.  At a time when Christian nationalism is again on the rise, Arnold challenges those of us who follow Jesus to remain citizens of the Kingdom of God, with all the distinctiveness of those who walk the way of the cross. Arnold, who remains much less known that Karl Barth or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, served as a pastor in Germany at that tumultous time of the 20s and 30s, and remained highly influential in the thought and faithfulness of both men.  Here, in The Inner Life , Arnold challenges the church to remain faithful to God made known in Jesus Christ.  That makes The Inner Life  quite unlike the other books that parade in "Christian living" these days.  Those of us who take Jesus so seriously as Arnold, know better than taking ourselves, or our politics, cultures or even individuali...

The prophets were an interesting group of people.  Sometimes misunderstood (sometimes understood perfectly).  Sometimes an outsider to the community (more often members of the community).  Usually called to speak a difficult word to a people that might not receive it.  The prophets sometimes spoke and sometimes demonstrated their message (think Hosea's marriage to Gomer).  The message would typically involve a word of judgment that would end with a future hope, a new beginning that God would bring about.  But, even with the promise of a new beginning, hearing judgment passages was difficult (who likes judgment?). This seems to be the general pattern of prophetic ministries -- speaking difficult words of judgment that would eventually emerge as God’s new work.  Jeremiah, Isaiah, Jonah, Hosea, John the Baptist all lived out these kinds of ministries.  Sometimes those words were rejected and at other times they brought about confession and redemption...

Preaching is an audacious act.  It is strange that a person might claim to speak about God.   It is exponentially presumptuous to proclaim, "Thus saith the Lord".  It's an audacious act. Yet, when we speak under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it is a faithful act.   And, it says far more about God's character and nature than it does about the character and nature of the human mouthpiece -- after all, God spoke to Balaam through an ass.   God speaks, which is to say, God acts and interacts directly with and in this world.  But, God always empowers and acts through agents.   That God entrusts us with such a great gift suggests that God is less concerned about getting something accomplished but is concerned with relating with all of Creation.   As such, preaching is not simply about communicating information (although that does happen).  Nor is preaching simply about accomplishing a task (say, "getting people saved").  Instead, pre...

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Buried somewhere deep in my memory is the process of reading through Barth's first attempt at a dogmatics , what he titled in German Unterricht in der christlichen Religion , "The Institutes of Christian Religion".  I first read this book as an undergraduate at the time I took my first preaching course.  In the winter of 1924-25, Barth delivered these lectures at Göttingen (hence the English translation's title) on the theology of the Word and God; he followed those lectures in the spring/summer of '25 with the doctrine of reconciliation (which, sadly, have never been translated into English).  In October of '25, Barth left Göttingen for the University of Münster, where he finished his early dogmatics with lectures on eschatology in the winter of 1925-26 (also never translated into English).  So what we have in these lectures are a mirror of Barth's quite early attempts to think theologically about the approach he gave in his commentary on Romans and d...

... they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus" (Acts 17.6-7). There is fear that is not fear There is faith that is not faith There is hope that is not Hope There is peace that is not Peace There is success that is not Success There is failure that is not Failure There is presence that is not Presence There is absence that is not Absence There is victory that is not Victory There is defeat that is not Defeat There is life that is not Life There is death that is not Death For our eyes see but do not see Our ears hear but do not hear Our minds behold and yet do not comprehend The Kingdom has turned everything right-side up

The air sticks to my skin, humid enough to hang suspended and thinly substantial.  Like a veil.  A torturous, hot, stifling veil. It's a typical July summer day in the southeast. I've been staring at an email I received from a friend some days ago.  I admired her once, but we've since lost touch for very particular reasons.  I had emailed her a week before, asking if we could meet to talk over -- not around -- the reasons for our current estrangement.  "I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish", she responded.  She only wanted to meet if I was looking for a "biblical" reconciliation. But here's the thing. I've lost a bit of myself over the past months.  Cracking at the seams under what I can only call the weight of PTSD, I've been struggling to stitch myself back together.  Every relationship in my life shifted under the strain, and I -- a mess of threads -- often forced the change.  I withdrew, lashing out when threatened, and...

As a young PhD student in 1974, James Edwards was consulting a commentary on the Gospel of Mark published in 1937, written by the German New Testament scholar, Ernst Lohmeyer.  The Foreword to the 1951 second edition written by one of Lohmeyer's research assistants contained the intriguing comment that Lohmeyer had "been carried off by a higher power to a fate yet unresolved".  This led Edwards to begin a decades long detective hunt, as he pursued the truth about what happened to Lohmeyer.  Why had nothing been heard of him after his arrest by the Russian occupying forces in 1946? In 1979, during a visit to East Germany to meet with Christians, Edwards tells of his embarrassment and shock at the reaction of those at the meeting when he asked about the fate of Ernst Lohmeyer.  The meeting immediately closed down, the atmosphere became charged, and Edwards was taken for a long walk.  It was explained that the very mention of Lohmeyer's name could incriminate a...

We have been warned that this Sunday -- in only two days -- massive ICE raids will result in the wholesale round-up, massive incarcerations and social violence towards any number of human beings will result. What will you do? I'm reminded today, as I sit at my desk, of a story about the famed New Testament scholar, Rudolf Bultmann. 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 st...

"Jack" was an ideal lay minister.  He was a physician, so he had learned the importance of compassion and listening over lecturing.  He read theology and he practiced spiritual disciplines.  I could always hear echoes of the Holy Spirit in his counsel.  No on in the congregation -- including Jack -- could remember all he'd done over the years for that congregation.  Jack was the embodiment of what the Reformers meant when they talk about "the priesthood of all believers". Jack, of course, wasn't ordained.  But he stood beside me in more than one ministry foxhole over my years in that congregation.  When I introduced a change in the congregation -- one that had become necessary in order for the church to continue its ministry in the community -- Jack was right there with me when that change caused conflict.  There was only one thing Jack asked for in exchange for all his work in the congregation.  Jack wanted to be friends. When the time...

Marcus Warner and Chris Coursey's The 4 Habits of a Joy-Filled Marriage  builds on a simple idea contained in its subtitle:  15 minutes a day can improve the quality of your marriage, regardless of the condition of that relationship. As unbelievable as it sounds, this small book packs a punch:  It could very well be true.  The short daily exercises in this book are written so that spouses can work through them over a period -- 60 or 90 days -- to improve the joy you experience in your marriage. According to the latest breakthroughs in brain science, there's no greater motivator in life than joy.  When you faithfully practice these exercises, you begin to change the way you think and feel about yourself, your spouse and your marriage. You cultivate joy by learning how to: Play together. Listen for emotion. Appreciate daily. Nurture a rhythm. If you're in a good relationship, this book will help you to love and appreciate your partner even mo...

The current Administration is attempting yet another dismantling of the Affordable Care Act .  So a confession:  As a result, Donald Trump got me to listen to Jesus in a way I've not listened before. I've long been haunted by the 10th chapters of Matthew and Luke, passages in which Jesus sends out his first apostolic reps, the Twelve (Matthew) and the Seventy (Luke).  They are lessons in gospel minimalism, the first inkling of how Jesus understood and enacted his witness in the world, trusting those folks to help take the Story on the road.  Mentoring new postulants for ordination compelled me to consider the calling Jesus extended, the message he instructed them (and us) to declare, and the messengers' inevitable vulnerability. In classes and ordination services, I've warned would-be ministers that the "sent ones" are vulnerable from the start.  Jesus advises:  "Don't take purse, shoes, a change of clothes, or an ATM card [postmodern update].  De...

Abigail Rosenthal's A Good Look at Evil is an exploration of the "philosophical problem evil" from a literary perspective:  What is evil?  How can we recognize it?  And how can we resist it? After reviewing the philosophical and psychological literature on the question of evil, Rosenthal finds the answers unsatisfactory and therefore adopts a literary approach to the question.  By doing so, Rosenthal shows what evil is and how it is a perennial threat to us.  For Rosenthal, "narrative self understanding" is the heart of a good life -- and of goodness itself.  Evil is not an abstract concept but a lived reality and situation in which we encounter.  If you want to understand evil as well as to know how to live your life, A Good Look at Evil is a perfect way to begin writing your own story. I was most challenged by Rosenthal's review of Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem .  Because, as Rosenthal convincingly argues, it was Arendt's ...

Stephen Copeland's Where the Colors Blend:  An Authentic Journey through Spiritual Doubt and Despair ... and a Beautiful Arrival at Hope will, in turn, challenge, encourage, motivate and inspire its readers.  Copeland's personal style makes Where the Colors Blend a real delight to read, and is a powerful reminder that God works in the very stuff of our lives to bring us into his vision of wholeness and holiness. It's a book that will cross dome difficult terrain, too.  So reader beware:  Copeland tackles his pain, doubt and despair with a clarity and grace that one rarely finds in memoirs.  But all those are still there. In the end, though, Where the Colors Blend helps us to look at our own lives -- our own circumstances and the people around us -- and find where God may be touching us a lot more closely than we would otherwise realize. ___________________ I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

Rob Douglas' Come Eat with Me takes us through the Bible as if it were an open dinner invitation from God.  Douglas sees God as both the ultimate guest and consummate host for every good meal, and blends good storytelling with Scriptural accounts of meals (focusing on meals with Jesus). Douglas blends some of the best skills in storytelling (like personalizing the characters in the biblical stories with real names) in order to make the stories about those meals come alive.  For example, the construction of the tabernacle is told from the perspective of a carpenter working on some of the furniture. Come Eat with Me is a thought-provoking little book, especially if you take the chapters slowly.  It's a book that will remind Christians about the importance of hospitality -- both as host and guest!  And it will bring the Bible to life in a way that most of us have never heard before. ____________________ I received this book from the publisher in exchange for ...

Agatha Nolen's Chasing My Father:  A Memoir is an amazing story that opens readers to the hard questions of life and leads toward transformation.  It's an experience to pick up these pages from Nolen's life because the book explores the real journey of faith -- from brokenness like cancer to a new life found in love. In our own culture, faith is often seen as crippling in the journey of life.  Some will say that faith robs us of our ability to find our true selves and keeps us from seeing the road ahead of us with any clarity.  Nolen knows better, and Chasing My Father puts those critics to silence.  This is a book I couldn't put down, because it takes us through heartache and into healing. _________________ I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

I ordered my copy of James Edwards' new Between the Swastika and the Sickle:  The Life, Disappearance, and Execution of Ernst Lohmeyer .  Lohmeyer was one of those figures from the Confessing Church for whom I had a great admiration, but knew so very little.  I was surprised to find him omitted from Preaching in Hitler's Shadow (which I read about this time last year).  Aside from a few of his works on New Testament subjects (most of which, sadly, have never been translated into good English works), I hadn't ever seen much about him or been too familiar with his work.  As a doctoral student, I heard his name in hushed tones and wondered why. Over the years I've had a close interest in the history of Christianity in Germany over the past two centuries.  From the Enlightenment onward some of the most impressive and durable progress in several areas of intellectual scholarship was made in German universities.  In areas of philosophy, theology and bibli...