Communion

Behold

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This post is about worship. First, though, a presupposition: We become what we behold. Don’t believe me? Billions of dollars are spent every year by advertisers because they believe that people become what they behold. Why are you dressed in those clothes? Why do you live in that house? Why that car? Why aren’t we all wearing Amish monotones or living in double-wide trailers or driving 65 Chevy Novas? Because Levi’s and J. Jill and Under Armour and Nike and Carhartt spend a lot of money to produce ads to show us how we could look if we bought their … Read more…

How to Eliminate an Enemy

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Even without a read-through-the-Bible plan I spend a lot of time in the Old Testament. It’s kind of a big part of my day job. But like a lot of people, I tend to go back to the same passages – or at least the same kinds of passages – over and over. Comforting Psalms, the creation narratives, the Exodus, prophesies of Jesus, the promises of God. It’s not exactly O.T. lite, but it is O.T. soft. That’s why a reading plan is so good for us. It compels us to read or re-read the scriptures we might otherwise avoid. … Read more…

Blood and Ashes

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This week’s post reflects on Leviticus chapters 1 – 15. ~~~ When we lived in the country Lisa and I would take evening walks down a narrow, winding lane we called Christmas Tree Road. That wasn’t what the county called it, but at the halfway point there was a Christmas tree farm. Hence the nickname. In November, when the farmer trimmed the trees to prepare them for the December sale, the air around the road smelled of white pine, blue spruce and cedar. That clean, Christian scent lingered on our clothes until we got back home. Even as I write … Read more…

It Was My Sin That Held Him There

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Author Carson McCullers was born in Columbus, Georgia, and lived a terribly unhappy childhood.  When she graduated from high school at 17, she left.  Years later, when she was preparing for a rare visit, her cousin asked why she was going back to a place which caused her so much pain.  McCullers answered, “I must occasionally go home to renew my sense of horror.” Communion, the Lord’s Supper, Eucharist – whichever term you prefer — is a Christian’s way of going back.  And we do it for the same reason McCullers did; we need to renew our sense of horror.  We … Read more…