Easter is always a high point in the church calendar. But how do we understand resurrection for the living and the dead? I want to make this blog personal, so I am going to frame it within the death of two loved ones. The first was my brother who died on November 16, 2014 from a brain tumor at the age of 47. The second is my mother, who died almost four years later to the day on November 15, 2018 from cancer after suffering for five years

It’s still Lent, and Easter is getting closer!

In my last blog, I painted the portrait of Jesus as a child. In this blog, I’m going to paint a different portrait of Jesus as a man. And again, when exploring characters like Jesus, the Bible is our main source of information. However, we must be cautious not to embellish the image of Jesus in the text.

It’s Lent and Easter is coming!

So, in my next three blogs I’m going to explore Jesus as a child, as a man, and as the resurrected man. When exploring characters like Jesus, the Bible is our main source of information. However, I want to throw out a cautionary note, or three of them to be precise.

There are three things we must remember in looking at the childhood of Christ:

The older I get time seems to speed up. And despite the distinction of days, weeks, months, seasons of the year, and years by themselves, it seems to me that time itself becomes homogenous; or a mere succession of one thing after the other with no moments, events, or occasions to set that time apart for its own unique significance.

What, you might say, has the renown C. S. Lewis, A. A. Milne’s donkey character called Eeyore, and Jesus the Son of God have in common? Well, quite a bit. So, let’s start with C. S. Lewis.

Once upon a time – 1674 to be precise – a baby boy was born to a loving husband and wife. Their names were Isaac and Sarah. It was during this time that people began to pull away from the established church – or the Church of England to be precise. Those who would not conform to the State Church were known as dissenters. People of that time, like Isaac and Sarah, could not enroll at Oxford, Cambridge, or any other prestigious university for their education unless they were members of the Church of England. Without this membership, they could not run for any public office or become a member of Parliament.

Jesus would often say to his disciples, “You have heard it said…” (Matt. 5:17) and then continue by quoting various sayings that were common in his day. Likewise, we’ve all heard it said many times, “Listen before you speak”. It not only makes sense, it’s good manners as well, right? Well, Jesus would follow his comments with, “But I tell you…” (Matt. 5:18). It’s the conjuncture “but” that I’d like to capitalize on to contradict the saying that is allegedly filled with sense-making and manners.

Where are you right now? Not your location, but your current circumstances. What word or phrase describes your situation? Happy or depressed, included or lonely, healthy or addicted, joyful or grief, focused or aimless, or something else? Wherever you are, it is precisely from that place where you can begin a meaningful journey through the season of Advent.

Imagine sitting at a banqueting table where civility qualifies you to be there in the first place. Set before you are the finest tableware. Eleven pieces of silver cutlery are precisely situated: a fish knife and fork, dinner knife and fork, salad knife and fork, soup spoon, oyster fork, butter knife, and a dessert spoon and fork.

In this new season of blogs, I will be writing about something that has touched every area of American culture: civil dialogue, or rather, the lack of it.

What is civil dialogue?

Every significant event that impacts human society allows us to make a fresh appearance as the Church instead of maintaining appearances as usual. In many ways, these significant events allow us to examine ourselves. COVID is such a time. I am not sure what to call it, but there is something about being human that battles for maintaining appearances instead of going through the difficult process of making a fresh appearance.

Gen Z are the vanguards of inclusion. They lead the way forward with a singular approach to race: the human race. The concept of a singular category called the human race is nothing new. However, the place we currently find ourselves is the result of consciously labeling human beings with a race category and then unconsciously (and in some cases knowingly) assign a value to that race.

I recently heard a Jewish academic tell a story while listening to a popular podcast:

“A Jewish survivor of the Holocaust died and went to heaven. God was there to meet him with loving arms. The Jewish man ran into the arms of God and poured out his heart about the Holocaust. God replied, ‘I don’t know what you are talking about’, to which the Jewish man said, ‘You would if you had been there!’”

What is so special about Gen Z? Well, nothing at all, and yet everything.

On one hand, there is nothing new about Gen Z, in the same way there is nothing new about my own three children (two of them Gen Z)…..On the other hand, Gen Z represent something very new, at least in the West.

“I got my break – big break – when I was five years old. It has taken me more than 70 years to realize it. You see, at the age of five I learned how to read. It’s that simple. And, it’s that profound.”

Some things are quite revealing. One of those things is social commentary. It is absolutely fascinating. Even more charming are the canvases where commentary is displayed specifically during isolation. Chalked on sidewalks and fences, suspended out of bedroom windows on large white sheets, painted on signs, and populating all the online social platforms.

The classic list of sins as we have come to know them today are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. They were deemed as deadly simply because they were viewed as an excess of good things.