What stood will stand, though all be fallen,The good return that time has stolen.Though creatures groan in misery,Their flesh prefigures libertyTo end travail and bring to birth‘Their new perfection in new earth.At word of that enliveningLet the trees of the woods all singAnd every field rejoice, let praiseRise up out […]
Resurrection
10 posts
John 20:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for [they were afraid]. Over the course of the Easter season, I see a lot of my colleagues and friends posting various […]
Many with whom I mourned the deadAre dead, and mourn no more. BlessédAre they that mourn, for thus they haveThe fullest magnitude of loveAnd learn of it, whereby the deadOutlive their lives, and live insteadEternally in present graceWhere death, ashamed, can find no place,For love goes with them, out of […]
This is an entry in the “Acrostic Contemplations.” Originally posted on January 1, 2024, this entry is the beginning of the second round of Acrostic Contemplations. “Time does not exist.” “Time is a human construct.” “Latest theories of physics eliminate time entirely.” These are all statements often found around the […]
Second Sunday of Advent (December 10, 2023) “Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.” In the name of … We come to religion for answers. There may be […]
“I believe…in the resurrection of the body.” I grew up in a Presbyterian church where the preacher focused on interpreting the Bible, expository preaching plain and simple. The physical space had very little adornment. The windows were rose-colored stained-glass (ironic, I always thought)1The video linked is of Petra’s “Rose-Colored Stained […]
A sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (May 7, 2023) Yesterday was the coronation of King Charles III, whose mother the Queen once worshipped here, in this congregation. Like many of you, I watched the service, and I was struck by a particular prayer uttered when the Archbishop of […]
The following is a series of experts from Chapter 8, “Raised Imperishable,” in my book Beautiful and Terrible Things. When I teach courses on the Bible one of the first interpretive rules I put forward is this: The Bible doesn’t answer all the questions that we want to ask. My […]
It is our nature to mark specific dates and times, not just the annual remembrance, but particularly those that seem somehow significant, whether numerically (5, 10, and so on) or personally, as when we passed the threshold when Mack had been gone from this world longer than he had been […]
A reflection for Easter Sunday from Emil Brunner, Eternal Hope, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954). “But it is putting things the wrong way round to assert, as has been recently done, that the faith in the resurrection is ‘nothing other than faith in the Cross as a saving event’ (4). The […]