Words on the Word
preaching
Weekly Greekly Lectionary Confectionery
If your church uses a fixed Sunday lectionary, I found a great blog for you this week. Looking at the Greek (and English translation) of the Gospel reading each week, Left Behind and Loving It is a help to preachers (and parishioners) who want to explore the text in depth. The Greek is there, but knowledge … Continue reading
Advent Wreath! Advent Wreath! Advent Wreath!
“Advent Wreath! Advent Wreath! Advent Wreath!” This is the mantra my 2-year-old son repeats as soon as bedtime routines begin–and sometimes before that. Each night since the beginning of Advent, our family has observed Advent together by praying, reading a Bible passage, lighting a candle, and singing a verse and the chorus of “O Come, … Continue reading
More on the Connecticut school shooting: the haughtiness of humanity will collapse, says Isaiah
I wondered tonight whether this week’s Greek Isaiah readings might have something to say to the recent school shooting in Connecticut. Indeed, here is Isaiah 2:17-19 (my translation from the Greek): Then every person will be brought low, and the haughtiness of humanity will collapse, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. … Continue reading
He crushes guns and diffuses bombs; he destroys weapons of destruction (Psalm 46 speaks into the mass school shooting)
Psalm 46, a Psalm for tragedies and disasters, reads: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of … Continue reading
Jesus weeps, we weep
Jesus wept, and he weeps again today, with the horrible news of another school shooting in Newton, CT. From the New York Times: A gunman killed 26 people, 20 of them children between the ages of 5 and 10, in a shooting on Friday morning at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., about 65 miles … Continue reading
My Chapel Message Today: “Want Wisdom? Just Ask.”
I spoke in chapel at Gordon College today. You can watch the message above.
Leslie C. Allen’s Liturgy of Grief for under $5 (ebook)
Leslie C. Allen’s Liturgy of Grief is under $5 this month in ebook form. It’s here on Amazon ($4.99) and here on CBD ($3.99). It’s a good deal for a great “pastoral commentary” on Lamentations. I reviewed the book this summer, as well as interviewed the author.
One of my reviews to be published in Bible Study Magazine
I have written a book review that is slated to be published in an upcoming issue of Bible Study Magazine. You can see what Bible Study Magazine looks like by flipping through this past issue. The book I review is Lamentations and the Song of Songs, by Harvey Cox and Stephanie Paulsell. It’s the newest edition of Westminster … Continue reading
The Gospel According to Isaiah 53, reviewed
Isaiah 53 is one of the clearest prophecies of Jesus the Messiah in the Hebrew Scriptures. This chapter has changed the lives of thousands of people–both Jews and Gentiles–who have read the text and believed in the One who fulfilled these prophecies in glorious detail. Thus begins Mitch Glaser’s Introduction in The Gospel According to Isaiah … Continue reading
Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament: Colossians and Philemon, reviewed
Getting from participles to preaching, from grammar to Good News proclamation, can be a challenge to preachers and teachers when working with the biblical text. But if there is theology in those prepositions, as seminary professors have often noted, careful attention to the morphology and syntax of the text can be key in preparing to … Continue reading
