Peripatetic Pastor

Tag: Peripatetic Pastor

  • THE IMPULSE TO EXPLAIN

    Seeker Services In 1975, Bill Hybels, a Chicago youth pastor with roots in the Christian Reformed Church, started a movement to bring new people into the church. He proposed a style of service stripped of anything that might put unchurched people off: no crosses on the walls, no old hymns, not much scripture. A message…

  • GARDEN STORIES

    Pondering the Story For years I have pondered the garden story in Genesis 2-3. The story is part of a larger conversation in the ancient Middle Eastern culture about what it means to be human, including such stories as Adapa and the Gilgamesh. To be human, so goes the ancient conversation, is to be between: between the animal…

  • SUPERSTITION

    How an Old Distinction between Religion and Superstition Speaks to Today SUPERSTITION I’ve been thinking lately about superstition. Not the funky 1972 Stevie Wonder hit, although it would make a great soundtrack for this piece: Very superstitious/Writing’s on the wallVery superstitious/Ladder’s ‘bout to fall Got the beat in your head? Hum it as you read.…

  • MORE (MOSTLY SHORT) NOTES ON HOW TO READ THE BIBLE WITH JOY

    MORE (MOSTLY SHORT) NOTES ON HOW TO READ THE BIBLE WITH JOY A few posts back I made a few suggestions about how to read the Bible with joy and a certain confidence. Five simple suggestions: To those five suggestions for reading the Bible, allow me to add five more, beginning with: 1. Laugh occasionally. The Bible…

  • CONTINGENCY

    A Lenten Meditation Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Ash Wednesday is about contingency—not contingency in the technical philosophical sense but the earthbound, timebound lives we live. As we are marked by ashes, the priest says, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return.” In his conversion poem, “Ash Wednesday,” T.…

  • SABBATH IN A TIME OF GREED: IN PRAISE OF LIMITS

    Limits In a fine new book on the Sabbath (Israel’s Day of Light and Joy: The Origin, Development, and Enduring Meaning of the Jewish Sabbath. Eisenbraun’s, 2024), Jon Levenson lingers on Exodus 23:10-12. The passage begins with the sabbatical year: Six years you shall farm your land and gather its produce. For the seventh you…

  • THINKING ABOUT BIBLICAL AUTHORITY

    Reading the Bible with Joy Authority in Crisis We face a crisis of authority. Or, rather, crises of authority. Some of these are in matters of faith. My most recent post on reading the Bible ended with a question about biblical authority: When does the Bible say to the church: “Thus says the Lord”? When…

  • COMPANIONS

    A Sabbath Meditation I’ve grown old without ever meaning to. The years have slipped by, and now in this new passage of life, companionship has become precious. Perhaps I’m brought to these thoughts because an old friend recently died, a companion from childhood. At his graveside service, I read and reflected on Psalm 23.  The middle…

  • THE JOURNEY

    The Bible as a Guidebook on the Journey into the Heart of God Last week I published a piece on reading the Bible: five suggestions for reading with joy. My (first) five were: So, five suggestions. They are not the last. I have more, to which I’ll come in future posts. But first before going…

  • THE RELEVANCE OF THEOLOGY

    Reflections on Martin Luther King Day Sometimes theology—thinking carefully about God—seems utterly irrelevant. Today, Martin Luther King Day, as I write this, is such a day. On this day, we think again of the dream that has been at the heart of who we are as Americans, a dream forever outside our grasp and yet…