Category: Religion
The Editor of Our Faith
Ira Glass said something in his commencement speech to the Columbia J-School that I loved. He said editors don’t get the respect they deserve. (I’m certainly not an unbiased observer here.) There are so many...
7 Cautions Before Starting an Online Bible Study
When I set my writing goals at the end of last year, I had thought to begin a Bible study blog series, working through the book of Matthew. The idea of a public Bible study...
The Sound of the Spirit
Sunday is Pentecost. I was reading through Acts 2 again, a description of when the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples after Jesus had already ascended into Heaven. And I noticed something. Often when I...
Samwise’s Pentecost
Thinking on Pentecost, which comes up this weekend, I was struck in my reading of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers by a scene strangely reminiscent of what happened in the Upper Room. It is an...
Genealogy of Jesus – Part 4: Descent from Antiquity
Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus ends this way: Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah. Luke’s...
Genealogy of Jesus – Part 3: You’ve Got to Know the Word to Know the Word
Reading all of the names in the genealogy of Jesus, I know I’ve read them before. I know I’ve read their stories, some of the brief and boring, some more enthralling. But for most of these individuals, I...
Genealogy of Jesus – Part 2: Fathers and Foreigners
If we are in the Church, we are children of Abraham. Heirs of the promise and inheritors of the lineage of Christ. Jesus calls us brothers and sisters. So I shouldn’t read the names from...
Genealogy of Jesus – Part 1: It’s My Family Tree, Too
I love genealogies. For Christmas one year I received a subscription to ancestry.com. I ended up devoting the next 12 months to tracing my lineage as far back as I could go and down all...
Christian Seder Checklist
Christian seder suppers are growing in popularity–and with good reason. Celebrating Passover and the fulfillment of ancient promises in Jesus Christ is an occasion packed with meaning. How important it is to celebrate both the...
In Defense of a Christian Seder
At the end of Holy Week, some believers will take part in a Christian seder supper. This is a growing trend among Christians because the event is so deeply meaningful, because it reminds us of...