Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In my last essay, we saw how consumer culture has gutted the familial category necessary to understand the church. When a consumer visits a church, he expects another service-provider, such as a hospital or a restaurant. He doesn’t understand the role of men in ministry, and thus, not the role…
First time visitors to our church sometimes express their surprise that children, even the youngest, participate with their parents in the entire worship service. Many congregations created an expectation for the parents (and children) of Sunday School or Child Care being available during the entire worship service or during the…
Quantifying the Love of God “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” ~ John 3:16 This most beloved verse in all the Bible was spoken by the Savior himself to Nicodemus. As…
While The Lord’s Prayer enjoys wide recognition throughout the Church, its richness and depth may be unrealized due to a lesser familiarity with, what I will argue is, its primary inspiration: the Tabernacle. There, Christ’s intent can rightly be discerned. The Prayer’s methodological correction to the Jews and Gentiles wasn’t…
The Consumption of the Covenant Idea of the Church Last time we saw consumerism, having canalized its attitudes in our culture, shapes what the consumer sees when he or she steps into a church. Here, we’ll see how it has eviscerated the covenant and familial ideas necessary to understand the…
The ignoble Jayber Crow can stir your appetite for the noble. It’s the simplicity of a good ol’ Port William boy that builds the charm of the book. In fact, the elitists in Port William receive the harshest blows and severest outcomes, as they should. But before delving into the…
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A couple of observations about the sin or purification offering, with implications for corporate dimensions of sin. 1. Leviticus 4 prescribes the rituals for the purification offering for priests (4:1-12), the congregation (4:13-21), leaders (4:22-26), and common Israelites (4:27-35) The introduction to the last category includes a grammatical ambiguity. The…
In the New Testament, hope is often “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). David Steindl-Rast ( Gratefulness ) argues that this hope links together our personal encounter with the risen Christ with the “power to transform even the social structures of our time.” Scripture fuses two conceptions of glory. In Hebrew,…
The seven speeches that described the tabernacle end with a reiteration of the Sabbath command (Exodus 31:12-17). The description of the actual construction of the tabernacle begins with a reiteration of the Sabbath command (Exodus 35:1-3). Building the tabernacle will establish a zone of Sabbath in the midst of Israel,…
When I pick up a book that Time calls “screamingly funny” and “intoxicating,” I'm poised to disagree, to find fault. Sometimes, rarely , I find the critics are right. I had that experience recently when I hurtled through George Saunders’s 2000 short story collection, Pastoralia . Pastoralia ’s stories are…
The description of the tabernacle in Exodus 25-31 is organized in seven speeches, each of which begins with “Yahweh spoke” or “Yahweh said.” After the golden calf incident, we read another description of the tabernacle, but it’s not organized in the same way. In Exodus 32-40, “Yahweh spoke” is used…
Even before Jesus was born, the Spirit is stirring, preparing the way for His coming. Gabriel tells Zecharias that his son John will be filled with the Spirit from the womb (Luke 1:15), and after John’s birth the Spirit loosens the tongue of Zecharias so he can prophesy (Luke 1:67).…
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