It appears that over the past ten years, many people have come to accept the fact that the climate is changing and for the most part, not in a better way. While some people dispute the claim that the extra CO2 in the atmosphere comes from burning fossil fuels and is responsible for the warming, we should bear in mind that no reputable, peer-reviewed scientific paper has come forward to counter the claim of human-caused warming and climate change. The natural variations theory does not hold up to the facts. Read more…
Toxic Traditions
Much of this article is borrowed from a similarly-named article in www.patheos.com A century ago, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine were street legal and even found in some consumer products. Cocaine was in the original Coca Cola formulation. Heroin was prescribed as a cough suppressant (I bet it was effective) and meth was the drug of choice for WWII soldiers on all sides of the conflict. Now we know a lot more about the dangers of these drugs. In the same way, our church has developed “toxic traditions” that often cause more harm than good. Here are some of the author’s points. (Note that this is an evangelical, very conservative author. Six of his ten points I either disagree with or do not think they are relevant for Grace.) Read more…
The Lilies of the Field
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
They don’t toil, neither do they spin. Mt 6:28
In the foggy early morning hours, I am looking out at one of the last hydrangea flowers of the season. Abundant June rains enabled these plants to explode in size and profuse flowers. The floral show this year was the best ever. Now, when most of the flowers have withered and turned to seed pods, I see one or two late bloomers pop out of the green hedge. I feel an affection for late bloomers of all kinds. A sage once remarked that “youth is wasted on the young.”
Physical Worship
Christian worship should never be a spectator activity like watching television or going to the movies or a concert. Christian worship is something we DO. It is bodily action. Episcopalians and Roman Catholics are taught to stand to sing, kneel to pray and sit to listen to scripture. Robin Williams calls this “pew aerobics.” The vast majority of Christian worship (other than Episcopal/Roman Catholic) these days has reduced the peoples’ role to that of audience/spectator. They listen to music and then listen to a long sermon with an appeal for giving. Ironically, that is not the type of worship mentioned in the Bible nor during the Reformation. Read more…
Not a Zero-Sum Game
In their 1969 Abbey Road album, the Beatles artistically stated what mathematicians call a “zero sum game.” “And in the end, the love you take Is equal to the love you make.” That sentiment is the total opposite of the gospel.
In today’s gospel of Mark 4:24, Jesus says, “the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you.” How do we believe or live out this teaching without falling prey to the “prosperity gospel” heresy found in so many mega-churches? Read more…
Cowabunga and the Star of Bethlehem
After centuries of study and careful observation, we still don’t have a good understanding of what the Star of Bethlehem was. Most astronomers would bet on a supernova which is the final explosion of a dying star, because such events are extremely bright and last from a few weeks to a month or more.
Way back, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, between the Jurassic and Triassic eras, 200 million years ago, an unremarkable star on the outskirts of a small galaxy, collapsed. These are the death throes of every star. They literally run out of fuel to support continuous nuclear fusion, so the fusion reactions slow down and stop. Then there is no outward pressure of the constant fusion explosions. Then all that hot matter begins to collapse under its own gravitational attraction.
Church and Politics
I recognize that, taken together, these two subjects are about as welcome as talking about sex and income, but the faithful life cannot be lived outside of politics. Considering a recent academic study that revealed the third most common reason young people leave the church is because they “disagreed with the church’s position on political and social issues.” The disagreement on social and political issues happens with both conservative and liberal young people. Lest we think this is a modern phenomenon, consider two of the disciples of Jesus, Simon the Zealot and Matthew. Simon’s extended name, “the zealot” indicates that he was actively involved in the Jewish movement to overthrow the Roman government. Matthew, on the other hand, was a tax collector. Although he was Jewish, he made his living in collusion with the Roman occupiers. I seriously doubt if Matthew and Simon ever agreed on anything politically, but we do know that the labored tirelessly together to build the church. Read more…
Toothpaste
I start the new year with a reflection about something most of us use every day and we don’t give a second thought to it. I don’t object to whiter teeth or reduced halitosis, because those are good things for us socially and personally. But the lowly toothpaste tube is emblematic of a subtle disease that has crept into our collective thinking unawares.
In the early days of toothpaste in the old lead-tin tubes (yes, before plastic and the FDA, lead was used to provide a flexible and malleable container – it took a metal shortage in WWII to get the lead out) the nozzle on the tube was about half the diameter of today’s tubes. Consumers used far less toothpaste to brush their teeth because, for practical reasons, the brush sizes were about the same, so a smaller diameter but same length squeeze of toothpaste meant that consumers must have used less of it back then. (I have no scholarly data to back this up other than the size of the original nozzles).
Rivers in the Badlands
“Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. Isaiah 43:18-19 (The Message) Read more…
Sound Bites and Dialogue
Thanks to the video-ization of modern culture, humans have shifted our cognitive skills to largely visual with short attention spans, now shorter than a TV commercial. This means that anything that is not visual, i.e. auditory or kinesthetic, is discounted. This also means that anything that takes more than about 13 seconds of our attention is either discounted or ignored. Hence, quickly pronounced “sound bites” have taken the central role of truth in our society, over and above having a substantive dialogue about a topic. Heaven forbid that any of us would be required to engage our rational thinking skills more than 13 seconds. Read more…