I am a hopeful universalist. I believe that all persons will eventually be healed, liberated and transformed by the unconditional love of God. And yet, I must concede that given the nature of human freedom there is no way to…
Are the poor really blessed?
In the Gospel of Luke Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” I don’t believe for one minute that Jesus is saying it’s a good thing to be poor. Nor do I…
Christian, Baptist, Evangelical? Just call me a Jesus follower (then again, maybe not)
These three words — Christian, Baptist and evangelical — have such diverse meanings in contemporary society they hardly mean anything at all. So I would just rather be known as a would-be Jesus follower.
Do this — not, believe this — and you will live
The Sunday school version of the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10 simply admonishes us to be like the Samaritan and show love to our neighbor but leaves the question, “Who is my neighbor?” unanswered. The Sunday school…
Voting, working and advocating on the side of compassion
The compassion of Christ compels us to be political. I’m not talking about engaging in partisan politics. In Luke 7:16 Jesus is called “a great prophet” because he restored to life the only son of a widow. This poor widow…
The language of the Spirit: the way of love
How do you imagine the Spirit? The creeds speak of God in three persons, and the Spirit is often referenced as such. Some scholars note that the creeds meant something different than what we mean when we use the word…
Finding our way to a ‘good conversion’
No Christian conversion is exactly alike; each one is unique. This is certainly true of Saul’s conversion depicted by Luke in Acts 9. There are, however, some common elements. Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest disciples of…
Why Bible believers are not really Bible believers
A good number of evangelical Christians self-identify as Bible believers. It’s a peculiar way for a Christian to self-identify when you think about it. A Christian is someone who has some kind of relationship to Christ. After all Christ is…
The story of the poor widow and giving, taxation and deep faith
By Chuck Queen What are we to make of the Gospel story of the poor widow who put in the temple treasury all she had to live on (Mark 12:41-44)? In the previous Markan paragraph Jesus denounces the self-righteousness of…