Wandering Elder

I still find myself put out by my friend's comment of "who cares?" from a few weeks ago (two posts ago).  I find that I feel the same way I did in high school when someone would make fun of a favorite television show or comic book character. Actually, I think of it more in terms of this:  in high school, I and some friends were walking into a McDonalds.  There was a television on and it was playing MTV Unplugged.  Don Henley was singing, and it was one of his mournful ballads from his album The End of the Innocence .  I happened to like the album as did my friends, but as we walked by in a rush for a cheeseburger, one of my friends said, "Doesn't it suck to be singing your heart out to a room that just doesn't care?"  He meant, of course, the audience in McDonalds.  But that stuck with me. Now I find I feel the same apprehension and sadness I felt that day.  I love the Bible and what it represents, and I have dedicated my career and life to it...

With the tragic shooting at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in South Carolina, we find ourselves once again facing the looming specter of violence, hatred, racism, and the place of the church in the world. I say once again, because we have been here before.  Every one of those issues keeps rearing its head.  I don’t always understand why – there are times when we seem to have moved forward from the issues of violence, hatred, and racism.  There are times when the church seems to be making great progress in making a difference in the world.  And then there are times where all of that is called into question. Several years ago, the Batman movie “The Dark Knight” hit theaters.  It had within it perhaps one of the finest portrayals of the Joker ever to have been seen.  Heath Ledger played the part amazingly well (worth watching just for his performance, by the way).   More to the point, though, he brought the character to life an...

I have returned from our Annual Conference with a strange feeling about the future of our conference and denomination.  That may just be a normal feeling after a week of reports, debates, and a lack of proper air-conditioning.  Hard to say. I will tell you this story. During one of the morning Bible studies/teaching moments/motivational speeches, a presenter was speaking about the book of Acts.  His comment was that Acts was the second volume of Luke, "who was a disciple." I had difficulty hearing much more for some time because what I kept hearing in my head was my own voice saying, "That's not true."  Luke was not  a disciple.  We know  this because in the beginning of the Gospel of Luke the author writes the following: "Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it se...

As I get older, I find myself thinking about the idea of karma.  It isn't a doctrine I hold, or a particular philosophical or theological ideology that I maintain, but it is one that tends to make me nervous.  Having been brought up in the South, and in particular the Christian traditions of the South, karma was not something I was ever even aware of hearing about until the popularity of Culture Club's song "Karma Chameleon" in the early 1980s. What I found was that Christians have their own way of speaking about Karma.  "What goes around comes around."  That's a popular phrase among Christians - usually when referring to some perceived nere-do-well who finally got in trouble the way the righteous persons always thought they would or should.  "They got what was coming to them." So we all have our ideas of karma.  Jesus said, as found in the Gospel according to Mark, that "the measure you give will be the measure you get."  (Mark 4...

A few days ago I watched the movie Joe  starring Nicolas Cage and Tye Sheridan.  Mostly I watched it because I tend to like Nicolas Cage as an actor.  I find it interesting how he has fallen into the B-List or lower for most people.  I can't figure out why he isn't a draw any longer.  I have found him to be a solid actor.  The movie Joe  is no exception. I won't go into the plot too much here, but it is billed as a movie about the relationship between Joe (Cage) and a young boy named Gary (Sheridan).  The writing is good.  The pacing is pretty good, even though it tends to lag a few times, but only briefly.  And while the movie isn't an action  movie, from the beginning you feel the tension beginning to build. Everyone in the movie seems to be in some state of disrepair, and while they all seem to be trying to get out of their brokenness, situations are such that the interpersonal relationships between the characters is ironical...

With the fires going out in Baltimore, I find myself wondering about civilization.  The word itself, civilization, has multiple meanings.  One is "a being civilized."  Another is "the total culture of a people, period, etc."  The third one I found is this, "the peoples considered to have reached a high social development." The height of civilization is something that can usually only be measured in retrospect.  Being 'civilized' has also become something of a fluid definition.  For example, it was considered civilized for men to remove their hats upon entering a building - especially academic or religious settings.  I lament the passing of that mark of civility.  Of course smoking  was once the mark of high society.  I think that particular loss isn't so bad. So things change.  We have to recognize that.  Yet with the riots in Baltimore and the rise of groups such as the IS, the growing economic disparity in the US, and so ...

Gnosticism is a subject in which I am deeply interested.  Not just because of their fascinating scriptures and writings, but because of their take on the mystery of God and the tremendous power of knowledge. I say that because I have been reading a particular piece of apologetic writing (that is, a work designed to be an apologetic or defense of scripture) that purports that the way (perhaps even the only way) to read the New Testament is to hold a particular reading of the Old Testament which is defined as a figural reading. Figural reading is to read a passage from the Old Testament and, without denying that it has a particular historical context, claim that it also prefigures something from the New Testament, something that wouldn't be made clear except  through a reading of the Old Testament through  the Christian faith.  For example, in Isaiah 7:14 we read "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."  In the Old Tes...