My only experience with caissons is in the logistics of death. I’ve walked behind caissons at Arlington Cemetery, as the body rolls to its resting place. These committals have taps, and guns, and an officer with a folded flag. Other burials have just a few people, grieving alone while the madding crowd continues its frenzy, oblivious to their doom.
It’s there, at the graveyard, where you really wonder what’s true….
Read MoreThat term scapegoat, it comes from the Day of Atonement. On Sunday, we talked about the two bulls, one for the High Priest, the other for the people. There were also two goats. One goat was killed, and like the bulls, the blood of this goat was brought into the Holy Place.
After the blood had been sprinkled on the altar, then the other goat, still living, is brought to the High Priest. The instructions for this are …
Read MoreLike father, like son.
Adam hides. Cain deceives. And the field is dyed red with Abel’s fresh blood.
Like father, like son. All the way down to us.
Who will take responsibility?
We demand it from others. If someone does us wrong, we want them to pay….
Read MoreThe New Testament never uses priest for the office Jesus instituted. The only priesthood Jesus establishes is the collective, royal priesthood of all the baptized. St. Peter writes to the whole church: “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” [1 Pt 2.9].
A church that has special, ordained “priests” denies the pure Gospel. That’s because in the NT, Jesus is the priest….
Read MoreOne woman listened to a rebellious angel, and she likewise rebelled.
Another woman listened to an obedient angel, and she said, “Amen.”
One man fell, and brought the world to ruin.
Another Man came down from heaven to raise up the fallen world.
One tree infected mankind with bitterness.
Another tree appeared bitter but restored sweetness to our race.
Read MoreIn anger, he struck a man down. It seemed justified. But we are not to take the law into our own hands.
So the murderer ran. He spends forty years in exile. He marries, becomes a father. He is content.
Then one day he sees something inexplicable….
Read MoreThe so-called thief on the cross is called a criminal in Luke’s Gospel. Other gospels use a word for rebels, violent insurrectionists. In Luke, he is a κακοῦργος - evil-doer, malefactor.
One of these criminals mocks Jesus. The other, whom tradition names Dismas, has been observing Jesus. It has changed him.
Read MoreLuther once called the emperor “that poor mortal maggot sack … who is not certain of his life for a single moment” [LW 59 p95]. His point was the exalted rulers can suddenly die, and they cannot truly defend us. At that time, the Ottoman Empire was the great military threat. But Luther saw this in theological terms. The forces of Islam were attacking, and this, he believed, was divine judgment, because the Holy Roman Empire, and the Pope, placed their trust in money and arms, not the Word of God. To place your trust in horses or men—that is, to place your trust in armies—is to trust in maggot sacks. …
Read MoreIt’s disturbing to discover everything is rigged. Naïve, you thought physicians and teachers and media and politicians and pastors told the truth. One day you realize so much is a lie.
This isn’t a new problem. “All men are liars,” the Bible says….
Read MoreYou and I – we’re not living; not all the way, not as we should. Part of us yearns to return to the strong man. We’re like Lot’s wife, looking back to Sodom. Or the Israelites talking about the good food back in Egypt. We’d like a foot in both camps. Be a disciple of Jesus, but not too much. Leave a little room for a bit of hedonism….
Read More