As early Christianity began to grow and spread in Europe, in Rome, (interestingly enough) much of it was coined in Egypt where a lot of the origins of the New Testament are centered.
This is a plea for Christians to realize the significance of Isaiah 53 for their understanding of who Jesus was and what he did. I believe that he was motivated by love to take on the role of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53.
Jesus was not crucified for telling people to love God and our neighbors. He was killed for challenging the authorities of that time. He challenged the Jewish authorities, and he challenged the Roman authorities.
A Study of His Biblical Masterpiece as an Act of Rebellion
It is widely known among biblical scholars that The Book of Job is an outlier among other biblical books in that it provides overt criticism of established Ancient Hebrew beliefs and doctrines.
A five-part fictional story
A five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Reverend Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ.
A five-part fictional story
A five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Reverend Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ.
A five-part fictional story
A five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Reverend Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ.
Patriarchy probably started about 12,000 years ago. If you google the word, there’s a good chance that you will be more confused than before you started.
A five-part fictional story
A five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Reverend Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ.
If one searches the origin and history of Valentine’s Day, one finds clouds and legends mixed with a bit of history.
A five-part fictional story
A five-part fictional story set in the early 1990s about Reverend Paul Graham and his congregation, Grace United Church of Christ.
Lent is not about giving up chocolate. It’s about uncovering the blindness in our perception and being open to what others have to share with us.
As I’m writing this commentary, the news is filled with chatter about another anniversary observance of January sixth. It’s not about the liturgical religious observance known as the Epiphany, of course; but the third-year anniversary of those days surrounding the political insurrection in our nation’s Capital.
There’s no such thing as a nobody. That’s the message of Mary. Until her immaculate conception, until she howled out the Magnificat, she had become accustomed to being treated as a nobody.
The Second Coming of Christ is an erroneous idea that developed among Christians in the last third of the first century AD. It weakened the assurance that the first Christians had that the kingdom of God had come.
Decades ago, I wrote a blessing prayer for this season that began with a reference to nothing but a flicker of hope in “the fading glory of these autumn days, when night creeps early on to darkness; and leaves us, bound in shadows, longing for the light.” And yet, it remains that flicker of hope that I want to write about.
The Bible is a very human book with differing positions on who Jesus was and what he said. The result is you can find a passage in the Bible to support any political position you choose to take.
At the heart of the Christian tradition, we say there is “faith (πίστις, ‘pistis’ Gr. - trust), hope (ἐλπίς, Gr. elpis = meaning expectation, in a positive sense), and love ( ἀγάπη Gr. ‘agapé’ ‘love’ or φιλανθρωπία Gr. ‘caritas’ = charity).
There is no question that the voices of marginalized people are found in the Bible if you look carefully. The New Testament also presents a picture of a beautiful man who talked about a God of love and forgiveness and who urged his followers to create communities that practiced nonviolence, inclusion, and the pursuit of social and economic justice.
The second in the series that looks at the life of Jesus.
Some of the most important aspects of Jesus teachings were repressed from the beginning. The Hebrews started the repression. The Roman Catholic Church expanded it. And by and large the Protestants followed.
One of the things I’ve gathered from reading scholarship about the historical Jesus is very little about him can be said with certainty. Historians generally agree he existed and was crucified, but, beyond that, almost everything is debated.
Too much of politics caters to our craving miracles; faith is often about finding some magical safe place. But mystical experiences are
And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved,[e] with whom I am well pleased.”
Part Two
The four searchers now realized that there were two Jesus stories, one pervasive across the Christian churches, the other hidden in the background.
Part One
How did the wealthy accrue the power to change the thinking of the church about who Jesus was and what he did? That, our four researchers discovered, is -up to now- a mystery hidden in history.
Unlike many would-be messiahs who took up arms to evict the Romans, only to be crucified for their efforts, Jesus proposed and lived a path of peace and love.
I believe neither that Hades exists nor that anyone would be sent there even if it did. But as a critique of the manner in which wealth neglects the poor, this is pretty powerful.
Following his life in Nazareth that possibly included day trips to Sepphoris looking for work, the next training ground for Jesus was a brief time with this same John the Baptist in the wilderness, hearing again that injustice is not the way of the Lord.
The early Christians looked to Abraham as their progenitor – even if they weren’t Jewish Christians. They remembered the words attributed to John the Baptist: “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. “ (Matt 3: 9)