Theology Tuesday

If the world was ending, you'd come over right? The sky'd be falling and I'd hold you tight. And there wouldn't be a reason why we would even have to say goodbye. If the world was ending you'd come over right? Right? I don’t know if starting my blog with this song (see the link below to listen) needs a disclaimer or an apology. I know it's not a Christian song. The storyline is shaped more by hookup culture than church school talk- but what a great song! It’s catchy with a caramel kind of flow and has that internal tightness that every good song effortlessly emanates. Can 40 million Spotify listeners be wrong? I get really tired of the debate around what is Christian, especially when swimming in pop culture waters.  Partly inspired by Luther’s off-hand comment "the devil has no need of all the good tunes for himself, " but more out of conviction that God doesn’t hate the world but loves it, I think our joyful theological task is engaging wh...

All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.                                                                                      John 17:10 In these Pandemic Lenten days, I’ve theologically sheltered-in-place with the 14th through 17th chapters of John’s gospel also known as the Farewell Discourse. The context of these chapters is the Last Supper (or was it the first?), the night Jesus was betrayed and the night before everything went to hell, even Jesus. You can know trouble is coming but still act like it will never find you--not you! Every time Jesus referenced his suffering and death, the disciples dismissed it, assured him that they would never let anything bad happen and said they certainly would never betray him. It’s n...

SACPC family and friends, Feels like a week of Mondays right now. St. Patrick's Day and not a pub in the land can safely open? When I feel like this, I like to remember that God is not a fan of Mondays. At all. Yes, it’s true, biblically speaking. In her wonderful book, The Grammar of God, Aviya Kushner points out that on the second day of creation (which in our measure of time is Monday) God does not declare it to be good. That powerful poetic line is absent. Go back, read Genesis 1 and see for yourself. I’m sure God meant to say it and, certainly thought it, but I also love that our Lord just couldn’t declare Monday good. Was he ever more my Lord?? But Tuesday. Today. The third day of creation, God makes up for lost time by not just declaring his creation good once but twice! In verse 10 and 12 of Genesis 1, we read vayahr elohim ki tov, God saw that it was good. In some Jewish Orthodox communities, Tuesday is doubly blessed, a day of divine love and considere...