“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” (Matthew 7:28-29) Every time Jesus opened his mouth people reacted. This crowd was stunned by an inherent “authority,” which had nothing to do with the …
Civilly Disobedient
Jesus the Activist (Part 3 of 4) “Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land…skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.” (Amos …
The Deepening Quality of Suffering (Avoiding Superficial Spirituality Part 10)
“No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God works in that soul by means of the dark night.” This is a line from the famous poem called, The Dark Night of the Soul, which Saint John of the Cross wrote from his ten-by-six feet prison cell in which he was imprisoned …
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James on Justice (An Appeal for Classless Christianity) James 5:1-6
Here we are finally in the last chapter of James making a slow descent toward the runway to land this thing. We’ll be taking just the first half of chapter 5 today and finishing up next time. As I’ve been saying all along, James’ letter addresses and undresses classism, the idea and lifestyle that one …
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How Jesus Feeds the Hungry (Part 2 of 2)
In Part 1 I introduced some thoughts, based on the familiar story of Jesus’ feeding of the 5000, about what I consider to be his typical way of feeding hungry people. The disciples wanted him to “send them away!” but fortunately he had a better idea, which I believe was more than unique to …
barney wiget 