It would have been a heady experience to walk Galilean roads in he the company of the prophet from Nazareth. Not only was the intimacy of life shared with him available to precious few. His select ‘disciples’ could also look back on the experience of having been chosen by name. Most of us do not [...]
Archive for February, 2009
humility amid the minders: Mark 9
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Mark, textures on February 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
the illusion of finality: Psalm 43
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on February 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The potency of despair lies in part in the pretense of permanence. When caught in the deathly grip of sadness, we believe this is all we shall ever know. The promise of dawn seems unthinkable. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I [...]
choosing reverence: Leviticus 19
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Leviticus, textures on February 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The best lies masquerade as self-evident truth. For example, people are to be valued according to their productive capacity. The code of conduct for the emerging Hebrew nation flies in the face of this pragmatic assessment at every turn. One’s aged parents, potentially a limping, whining, festering drag on forward progress are to be revered. [...]
the poignance of dialect: Mark 7
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Mark, textures on February 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The gospels narrate the words and deeds of Jesus in the common Greek vernacular of their time. This simple linguistic observation might obscure the fact that Jesus’ first and most commonly used language was almost certainly not Greek. He seems to have employed Aramaic as his lingua franca, though he was probably capable of managing [...]
Proverbs 10.13-14
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Proverbs, textures on February 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The lips of the wise are to be admired both when they speak and as they remain silent. The Bible’s proverbial wisdom sees the fruit of wise words augmented by its scarcity. More often than not, the wise prefer not to opine. A wise man must frequently be asked to offer an assessment, his default [...]
simplicity, truth, discovery: Proverbs 10.9
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Proverbs, textures on February 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Trying to remember the lies we’ve told consumes the available mental bandwidth and renders us incapable of creative, productive, trusting living. Energies that would otherwise be dedicated to service, planning, or doxology are directed at the unsustainable task of keeping untold tales under wraps: Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever follows perverse ways [...]
getting it very wrong: Mark 3
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Mark, textures on February 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
When sick people are made well and the deranged are freed of the forces and persons that enslave their minds, we are meant to shout, clap, sing, and dance. There are a thousand reasons not to do so. Most of them are a subset of the large sin called blasphemy, writ small on the canvas [...]
not as the scribes: Mark 1
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Mark, textures on February 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Jesus’ emerges from his strange encounter with destitution, abandonment, and triumph over satanic manipulation to re-enter civilization as an extraordinarily empowered teacher. Clearly, something happened to him out there. The heavenly voice of Jesus’ Father had expressed its satisfaction with his filial beloved, only to drive him into the desert for forty days. There he [...]
persistent doubt: Matthew 28
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Matthew, textures on February 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Contrary to widespread suspicion, doubt comingles persistently with belief in Christian experience. Doubt is only seldom faced down as an adversary, in contrast to, say, hardness of heart. Though well-armored hearts produce doubt with regularity, the condition should not be mistaken for the result. Doubt occurs for many ore reasons than simply that obstinacy which [...]
signposting contempt: Matthew 27
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Matthew, textures on February 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The narrative of Jesus’ judicial execution balloons with expressions of contempt. Even the sign placed above his head gets at its truth only by the prickly way of sarcasm: Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” It seems every single protagonist of the [...]
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