Daily Archives: August 8, 2025

There is only One

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Today’s first reading is from the Book of Deuteronomy, the fifth and final book of the Torah, presenting Moses’ farewell speeches to the Israelites as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. Structured as a renewal of the Covenant, Deuteronomy restates the Law given at Sinai, calling the people to fidelity, obedience, and love for the Lord. It emphasizes the heart of Israel’s relationship with God—not merely external compliance, but covenant loyalty shaped by memory, gratitude, and reverence. 

In our first reading Moses reminds the  people of Israel’s unique experience of God’s direct action in history with them. It was not the interaction with some remote unknown deity. They have had a personal experience of God,  “the LORD, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity” (Ex 34:6) That experience shaped them (and us) as religious people.

We would do well to pause and consider the landscape of religions across time up to now. How do they compare with the claims Christianity makes about God? Perhaps a short review is in order.

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What’s Next for this series?

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Lots of writing and research. The previous post outlined the moral landscape I want to explore, but I also have an additional objective. As we approach the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with the unconditional surrender of the nation of Japan and as the last of our WWII veterans pass from this life, I hope this series can remind or teach readers about the long-ago events that still shape modern life.

While this series assumes that atomic weapons were not available for the prosecution of the end of the war in the Pacific, the discussion around the topic and critique of the use of the first atomic bomb offers areas worth considering. Some of those arguments for not using atomic weapons were: Japan knew they were defeated and were ready for peace, naval blockade would have been sufficient, the demand for unconditional surrender was unnecessary, worries about post-WWII communism were premature, estimates of allied invasion-related deaths were inflated, and several other arguments. They are ideas worth exploring in this series.

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Failing in faithfulness

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This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday, Year C. In yesterday’s post Jesus highlighted the need for prudence and faithfulness. And now he follows that teaching with a variation on the basic parable. 

 45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. 

Jesus rounds off this section with a warning of the certainty of punishment for those who fail to do their duty (v.47). Verse 45 turns to consider the punishment to come for those who are not “faithful and prudent” while the master is away. If the master’s absence tempts the servant to say in his heart, “My master is delayed in coming,” he will be punished severely. But we should recall that Luke has established repeatedly that Jesus knows what is in a person’s heart—2:35; 5:22; 7:39ff.; 9:47; 24:38; Acts 1:24). 

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