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Wading through grace
This one verse, John 3:16, is treated like an evangelism tool. The whole experience is of a verse taken completely out of context.
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Revealing the way of death
Luke makes it clear Jesus doesn’t “deserve” the crucifixion. Not only to maintain Jesus’s innocence but prove the moral corruption of execution.
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Seven Stories and Revealing the Nonviolent Bible
The trouble with violence and the Bible isn’t just in the way we read it or even that it’s baked into our theology. We can’t even see Jesus at the center when our convictions are founded on violence. I was pretty young when I first asked “what’s so good about Good Friday?” Probably 10 or…
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Ending Violence
In the Passion, we become the witnesses, not only to the brutality put upon Jesus, but to the violence we impose upon one another. the Crucifixion destroys the justification for violence Good Friday | John 18:1-19:42 It’s often said the Passion preaches itself. Its power is self-evident. But it doesn’t quite preach like the fire…
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This Thursday of Holy Week
Between the Last Supper and the Passion, Jesus confronts the place of abandonment, his purpose and confusion. In the garden, we find a moment of intimacy which means so much more than we think. Tonight we’ll be gathering for our Maundy Thursday service. We’ll hear part of the story of the Last Supper from John’s…
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Crossed
He warned them. Three times he said what would happen when they got here. To Jerusalem. Three times. Just like the three times Peter would deny him. And the three times they fell asleep waiting. They knew what was ahead. Jesus told them! But they weren’t prepared for this. Not the cross. Good Friday |…
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What I Buy About the Cross
A few years ago, Rose and I were visiting some friends for dinner. After the plates had been cleared and we were finishing our dessert, my friend said “I’m starting to believe that I don’t need a Jesus to have existed to believe in a Christ.” The look on his wife’s face shocked me much…