TWICE, JESUS TELLS THE CROWD, “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE” (Jn. 6:35, 48) — and the image glows with the radiance of moonlight, giving us a surprising glimpse of the feminine face of Christ. The twin proclamations reveal the essence of the “Bread of Life Discourse” (Jn. 6:25-59). The evangelist has Jesus deliver this …
Mist on a Breeze #3
Lady Wisdom describes her role in creation: YHWH created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth, When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no …
Reaching One Through Addition
THE HISTORY OF RELIGION ACTUALLY HAS SOMETHING TO SAY that’s important for us to hear, right now. Recognizing the ambiguity of the American national motto, E pluribus unum, points us toward the same understanding. How does one get to one, through subtraction or addition? In mathematics, reaching one through addition means we’re dealing with abstractions …
When He Saw Her Weeping, He Burst into Tears
JESUS OF NAZARETH WAS A HUMAN BEING. So, whenever we assert his divinity, we need to remember his humanity. The orthodox formula, for the last 1,700 years or so, has insisted Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human. The Bible also shows us both, although the fully human sometimes can be harder to …
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Let’s Not Neglect Justice and Mercy and Faith
“HYPOCRITES! HYPOCRITES! YOU HYPOCRITES!” This past weekend, while watching the news about the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and the Republican response, these exclamations (and a few other choice words) kept screaming into my head — and occasionally out through my lips. Eventually, I realized I was responding, appropriately, in biblical terms. In the Gospel …
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Reading the “Secret” Language of the Word of God
BIBLICAL LITERALISM VIOLATES BIBLICAL TRUTH. Retired Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong calls it heresy. Literal interpretations of biblical texts miss the mark because they assume most of the texts are straightforward reports of facts. In doing so, such interpretations ignore the literary genres of the texts they interpret. Let’s consider the literary genres present in …
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Moonlight Shines in the Darkness
FOR THOSE WITH EYES TO SEE, the symbolism in the Gospel of John invites us into remarkable, even transformative encounters. The gospel’s prologue, for example, proclaims a light in the darkness, a light the darkness doesn’t overcome. Many see this to be an image of the sun and the invincible solar hero, but I feel …
Soul Spirit Wisdom 