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Posts Tagged ‘biblical reflection’

por invitación: ¿A quién iremos … ? La confrontación en Juan, capítulo 6 (Alexander Cabezas Mora)

Posted in por invitación, tagged , on March 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

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. (more…)

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nonsense: 1 Corinthians 13

Posted in textures, tagged , , on August 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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. (more…)

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copyright: 1 Corinthians 11

Posted in textures, tagged , , on August 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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. (more…)

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say it: Jeremiah 50

Posted in textures, tagged , , on October 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

A prophet like Jeremiah—and so many others who bore with similar reluctance the mantle of YHWH’s spokesperson—needed to be dragged kicking and screaming to the duty. Rarely were those prophets whom the biblical canon endorses as true prophets, the genuine article, eager with careerist zeal for the task to which YHWH had summoned them.

They dragged their feet.

Declare among the nations and proclaim, set up a banner and proclaim, conceal it not, and say … (Jeremiah 50:2 ESV)

There is a reason for the insistent repetition in the order. (more…)

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facing the music: 2 Timothy 1

Posted in textures, tagged , , on October 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

There are a million reasons to stay on the couch.

Passive resignation before the unyielding hardness of life and leadership can easily become a lifestyle. Passivity has a lot going for it, starting with the fact that it’s so much easier than getting up, walking out the door, and facing the music. You can even spin it in acceptable directions: living a ‘balanced life’ springs to mind and—apparently—to the pens and keyboards of a thousand suburban Christian writers, for whom balance and peace have become the twin goblet handles of the Holy Grail. (more…)

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what must be: Jeremiah 15

Posted in textures, tagged , , on October 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »

To be a prophet is not simply to declare what’s coming.

Contrary to what is often assumed, the language of the biblical prophets is rarely deterministic. To the contrary, the lines of this literature are relationally rich. The emotion of love and embrace, as of love unrequited, is a frequent visitor to these pages.

The Lord is not only the subject of the famous words, ‘Thus says …’. He is also the one who woos his often recalcitrant Israel. He pleads with her, suffers with her, is stunned by her, returns to her. He both desolates and is desolated by his beloved people. (more…)

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all good: Psalm 144

Posted in textures, tagged , , , , on July 29, 2012| 1 Comment »

The dialect of blessing accelerates quickly to its full cadence. Because the speaker has only good things in mind, no resistance belabors the tongue. None of life’s ordinary anguish burdens the mind as it spins out what it wishes for the ones upon whom its heart’s desire falls.

Blessing, one gathers, consists of two critical pieces: first, the desire of good only and everywhere for the one whom the blesser loves. And second, the willingness to do all that one can to coax those good wishes towards reality in the life of the blessed. (more…)

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inconvenient prayer: Psalm 141

Posted in textures, tagged , , on July 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

In ancient Israel as in our day, it sometimes seemed that true religion required the infrastructure of holiness and piety’s ever-grasping bureaucracy. Absent temple, priesthood, and sacrifice, what is one really to do?

The voice of the psalmists brings in prayer—wherever life’s inconvenience locates the one who speaks to God in this naked, untrammeled way—as the good-enough engagement with YHWH when it is all one has at hand.

O LORD, I call upon you; hasten to me!
Give ear to my voice when I call to you!
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice! (Psalm 141:1–2 ESV) (more…)

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living low: Psalm 131

Posted in textures, tagged , , on July 27, 2012| 2 Comments »

The altitudes of the heart are of massive importance to the biblical witness.

Particularly in the book of Isaiah, the hubris that leads a human being to elevate himself is a certain prescription that he will be brought low. The Psalms also pick up this topic, with uncanny employment of the same vocabulary that Isaiah uses to make the point.

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:1–2 ESV) (more…)

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unnecessary agony: Psalm 127

Posted in textures, tagged , , on July 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Ceaseless toil claims to justify itself. Our 24/7 agony shouts its own merit.

Hard, purposeful work is a noble thing, it is true. Only a questing, unworldly stab at false spirituality denies this.

Yet a different truth also intersects with our busy hands and our whirring minds: it is all useless if God is not in it.

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:1–2 ESV) (more…)

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