On Friday evening I sat on the patio of my favorite Italian restaurant and listened to my son’s stories.
Little more than a year ago, he and his older brother successfully completed the U.S. Army’s Ranger School, often considered the most difficult thing the Army can throw at a young man outside of actual combat. As though that were not enough, this strapping son had just come through the Army’s other elite training program, the Sapper Leader Course (a.k.a. ‘Sapper School’). Continue Reading »
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In the Psalms, as in life, the enemy is often hidden and relentlessly scheming. Here as in so many other of its observations, the book of Psalms displays its characteristic realism.
We are more sentimental and romantic about our adversaries, at least in those moments when we can bring ourselves to admit their existence. We do alright with evil, comfortably abstract and remote. But we resist the notion of evil people. They’re a bit too concrete for our post-modern aesthetic, where everyone gads about on pretty much the same moral plain and almost any action can be tolerated if we can just find an angle from which to understand its causes. Continue Reading »
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The 150 biblical psalms go out with a bang. The fireworks of doxology grow loudest just before we fold up our lawn chairs and head for our cars. The penultimate psalm urges the faithful to populate Israel’s public spaces with the kinds of shouting, dancing, and musical bombast that invigorate a people and cause YHWH to gaze upon his own with a satisfied smile:
Praise the LORD!
Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the godly!
Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
For the LORD takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with salvation. (Psalm 149: 14-4 ESV)
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«Decir que pagaron para ver a 22 mercenarios dar patadas a un balón es como decir que un violín es madera y tripa, y Hamlet, papel y tinta».
—John Boynton Priestley, escritor británico
«¿En qué se parece el fútbol a Dios? En la devoción que le tienen muchos creyentes…»
Esta es la conclusión de Eduardo Galeano en su libro El Fútbol a sol y sombra y otros escritos.
Las palabras de este escritor uruguayo abren otras venas de cómo se percibe este deporte en nuestra sociedad contemporánea. Y no es para menos; el fútbol es más que el simple encuentro de dos equipos rivales que buscan marcar goles. Continue Reading »
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The Bible’s Old Testament argues for what we today call ‘monotheism’ by asking a question.
‘Who is like him?’ and ‘Who is like you?’ are the rhetorical thrusts that celebrate YHWH’s uniqueness or, more precisely, his incomparability. Continue Reading »
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¿Qué significa cumplir setenta años?
¡Feliz cumpleaños!
Espero que todos se sientan satisfechos, orgullosos, y alegres en una ocasión tan digna de celebrarse como la que nos convoca en esta tarde hermosa en Medellín.
Ante la invitación de poner mi grano de arena en esta gran celebración, me siento agradecido. Aunque contar los años me hace sentir un poco viejo, he sido admirador del SBC (Seminario Bíblico de Colombia) y, luego, de la FUSBC (Fundación Universitaria Seminario Bíblico de Colombia) por la tercera parte de esos setenta años de bendición y desafío que celebramos hoy. Continue Reading »
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Jesús se caracterizó por su dureza al tratar con el liderazgo religioso de su tiempo. En cambio, con sus seguidores y con el pueblo fue un pastor compasivo y tierno. Aunque hubo ocasiones en las que también fue enérgico, sobre todo con aquellos que actuaban al calor de las emociones. Por ejemplo, ante el milagro de la multiplicación de los panes y los peces, sus seguidores reaccionaron de forma sensacionalista con el deseo de entronizarlo. El Señor les iba a mostrar qué clase de reinado buscaba establecer, más allá de las pretensiones asistencialistas y políticas que demandaban esos seguidores. Continue Reading »
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Noise is inarticulate sound. It expresses little or nothing. It does not mean.
I’m reminded of an elementary school memory. A music teacher, bent on helping us distinguish noise from music, asked us for examples of each. It was, at best, a naive errand, a tilting at windmills. We were, after all, nine years old and half of us were boys. Continue Reading »
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Paul, anguished and ashamed about portions of his biography, is hardly timid about others.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Lest we take the familiar path of dismissing Paul as uncouth and reptilian, it’s a good thing to notice how closely he links his worthiness to Christ and the ‘traditions’ about Jesus that he stewards for the sake of the communities he loves. Continue Reading »
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For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. (2 Corinthians 1:8–11 ESV)
Now I think we need to see those faces again …. Continue Reading »
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Canter Bridge 