God’s Layaway Plan
Growing up poor, I remember times when my parents just didn’t have enough money to buy Christmas presents for us. They almost always seemed to work things out in the end, but there were times things just didn’t to come together. One advantage they had was Wal-Mart’s layaway program – come in and find what [...]
The Spirit and the Word
The Spirit and the Word are inseparable. They, together, are the means by which God created and sustains the world in Genesis. By His word God calls forth all of creation. By the Spirit He works chaos into cosmos. God has called the world into being with the breath of His mouth (ruach) and has [...]
The Continuum of the Sacred: The Spirit and the Un-Mundane
In a previous post I argued that everything is sacred. That is, all aspects of our lives are sacred because the Spirit permeates all things. Taking a bath is sacred. Baptism is sacred. Doing the laundry is sacred. The Eucharist is sacred.
What I unwittingly communicated in that post, however, was that taking a bath [...]
The Spirit and Immeasurable Prayer
I’ve always found impossible Paul’s imperative to “pray without ceasing.” I mean, seriously, who has time for that? Even Luther’s comment that he’s so busy that he feels he has to pray for 3 hours a day doesn’t quite get at Paul’s impracticable “without ceasing” requirement – 3 hours is hardly “without ceasing.” Surely Paul [...]
Hovering Over the Face of the Deep: The Spirit in Creation
For all our debates about the nature and genre of the Creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2, I’m amazed by the lack of discussion surrounding the meaning of the Spirit’s activities in 1:2 where the text reads, “And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep.”
We’ve been so sidetracked by [...]
A Pneumatology of the Mundane
Is Sunday more holy than Thursday? Are the Eucharistic elements more sanctified than my Wonder bread and Welch’s grape juice? Is a church sanctuary more holy than the public park?
For modern Christians the answers are generally, Yes, each of the former is more holy or sanctified than the latter.
But I want to argue [...]
The Spirit is Not the Marlboro Man
The enlightened, autonomous individual - that rugged, Marlboro man who needs nothing but his own cigarettes and skepticism, has fallen on tough times. To some extent Postmodernity is the driving force of decay, falsifying individualism and reviving the idea that humans realize their fundamental identity within community. I’m skeptical of the kind of community ultimately [...]
Terminology Question of the Day
If Jesus is the “Word,”1 and we don’t want to be sloppy with our language and steer ourselves away from confusing the Word with the Bible, then what ought we call the Bible to emphasize it’s nature as God-breathed scripture?
I don’t like using “the word of God” because it confuses the Bible and Jesus and [...]