Happy New Year
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Category Archives: Musings
My two cents worth
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14; New American Bible) The phrase “made his dwelling among us” is translated several different ways: (translation, Bible)
- “made his dwelling” NAB, NIV
- “lived among us” NJB, NSRV, GNT, ISV
- “dwelt among us” ESV, NASB, NKJ, ADV, DRB
- “made his home” NLT
- “lived here with us” CEV
- “did tabernacle among us” YLT
That last one is from Young’s Literal Translation. It probably struck you as odd. But here’s my two cents worth: “pitched his tent among us.” The word used is eskēnōsen from skēnoō, “to dwell in a tent” – and it associated word skēnōma meaning “tent.” (Ref: Balz, Horst Robert, and Gerhard Schneider. Exegetical dictionary of the New Testament 1990: 252, 253)
I like my translation (however unqualified). It is graphic and telling just how “down in the dirt with us” is the Son of God. And that is love. Just saying…
Resolutions and habits
Unless you happen to be like my muse, Calvin, in the comic strip, I suspect you are about to make some New Year’s resolutions. How did you do on last year’s resolutions? About the same as the rest of us? One ad hominem wisdom saying defines “insanity” this way: to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. Perhaps 2021 is a time to consider changing the way resolutions are considered, made, and hopefully, kept. Continue reading
Beyond Grateful
One of the great gifts to the Church are the heretics. I use that one-liner in order to grab people’s attention. It mostly generates the question: “what possible good could come from a heretic,” right? The thing about heretics is that they ask great questions, sometimes the critical questions. The problem is they get the wrong answers. They take a road leading away from Truth. And in the beginning it always looks like a promising direction.
One of the early and dangerous heresies came from the Deacon Arius of Alexandria about the year 300 CE. In short, he claimed that while Jesus was divine, he was a “second tier” divine, a lesser God so-to-speak, not co-eternal with God the Father. In other words, there was a time when he was “not.” Arius has his supporters, even among the court of the Roman Emperor. Armies formed, battles were fought, and people died. This was serious stuff. The Council of Nicea in 325 declared Arianism a heresy.
Mercy and Justice
One of the great tensions in thinking about God, reading the Bible, and our own experience of life is how mercy and justice can operate together. That tension is succinctly expressed in two short verses of Scripture:
The LORD, the LORD, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity, continuing his love for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but bringing punishment for their parents’ wickedness on children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation! (Ex 34:6-7)
Our friends at the Bible Project shed light on the context of the verses and give us food for thought about the context for our lives. Please support their great work.
Villains and Innocents
The video above is a classic Christmas song known as the Coventry Carol. The carol was traditionally performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play called The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2. the carol itself refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed. It is a lament that is imagined having been sung by the mothers of the children lost to Herod’s cruelty. It combines the sound of their weeping with the gentle cadences of a lullaby. The lullaby is known as “Lully Lullay.” The account of the Holy Innocents is today’s gospel.
Pausing to be grateful
Short 2.5 minute video from 2010. A crowded shopping mall before Christmas. So different than this year, but even amidst the hustle, they too are called to a moment of gratitude.
Hilarious
Hopefully you know the backstory to today’s gospel – it comes from Luke 1:5-25. Here are the highlights: Zechariah, a Levite called to priestly duty in the Temple in Jerusalem, has his own “Annunciation” while offering sacrifice in the Holy of Holies. He is told that he and his wife Elizabeth, in their old age, are to become parents – as it turns out, parents of the Herald of the Messiah, John the Baptist. Zechariah doubts the message of the angel Gabriel.
But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time (Luke 1:20)
And now we move to the scene eight days after the birth of the child, in the midst of the Jewish celebration to name the child… and a kind of comedy of errors.
Battle of the Bulge
On this day in 1944, during the World War II Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe, 101st Airborne, rejected a German demand for surrender, writing “Nuts!” in his official reply. You can read the story of the demand and the reply here.
Local Tampa and friend, Fred Karl, was a tank commander in the Battle.
The bedrock of Joy
In the season of Advent and Christmas, we will hear a lot about Mary, the mother of Jesus. We’ll hear about her obedience, her purity, her faith, her consent. We’ll see her in outdoor Nativity displays, draped in blue, with downcast eyes and a beatific smile. We’ll enjoy watching our children dramatize her story in “virtual pageants” on Christmas Eve. We’ll honor her legacy with some of the most beloved prayers, liturgies, and carols we know. All of it true and right. But this morning let us consider Mary, the prophet. Mary, the voice of the downtrodden. Mary, the singer of the Magnificat, God’s gorgeous justice song.
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