I have come to think of this narrative as evidence of the creativity of God delighting in God’s own creation—a sort of cosmic playfulness at the level of ecological communion, connection, and transformation. The grace that I find in the story of the salmon is evidence to me of deep, sacred connections of life-sustaining nourishment at multiple levels.
Did Judas deserve this fate? If Jesus informs you that you will betray him, and tells you to hurry up and do it, are you really responsible for your act? Furthermore, if your act sets in motion the process—Christ’s Passion—whereby humankind is saved, shouldn’t somebody thank you? No, the Church says.
Tax day has come and gone. News video of tax protests is still being shown. There were images of President Obama wearing a Mao hat with the Chinese Communist red star. There were images of makeshift American flags with a hammer and sickle replacing the stars. One news photo showed a woman holding a sign that read, “My God, My Money, My Guns.”
Somehow we missed this episode of the Colbert Report in which Stephen squares off with Biblical scholar Bart Ehrman, author of Jesus, Interrupted. I am divine and you are the branches, indeed.
Do we recognize that Judith sings a new song celebrating the omnipotent Lord who set enemies aside at the hand of a woman? Can we who sing it hear the textual echoes and transformations of God’s spirit in Exodus not now being sent to drown the Egyptians but to effect the creation of the world?
In his new book The Evolution of God, Robert Wright leans on the first gospel–that of Mark–to suggest that later gospels present a Jesus who is less historically authentic, but more palatable to modern tastes, especially on interfaith issues.
Afterwards she could remember very little of what happened next. She heard the two, young women shouting at her. She felt the pain as they punched her and she fell to the ground. Then, her attackers were gone and Doris lay on the pavement in her own blood, slipping in and out of consciousness.
Henri Nouwen: Writing about the spiritual life is like taking prints from negatives… Often it is the dark forest that makes us speak about the open field. Frequently it is prison that makes us think about freedom, hunger helps us to appreciate food and war gives us words for peace.”
It seems like Christians are always struggling with a “Corinthian” tendency toward division and disunity. To be sure, in our denomination, and global Anglicanism, we’ve seen lots of it in the past six years, and certainly will see more. It is worth remembering that the Church of England broke ties with Rome in the middle 16th century over questions of authority and power.
As a father, I’m moved to want to protect my children – if that means running and hiding I’ll do it. I know many in Gaza are feeling this way these days. Just as in Israel, the Sudan, Myanmar, Mexico, and all the places where babies depend on their parents for nurture in a world run ragged by the cruel arms of oppression.