It’s been called one of the most important Christian books of the 20th century: H. Richard Niebuhr’s, Christ and Culture. I read it thirty years ago, then I read it in seminary, and I read it again last year. It’s astonishing to me that a book written in 1951 about something as ‘in the now’ … Read more
Do you remember how in 1 Samuel 15 God gave Saul the victory over the Amalekites? His instructions to the king were pretty straight forward: “Attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them” (15:3). Clear enough, right? This included their animals – “cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys,” nothing was to be spared. … Read more
The verse is striking in its simplicity: “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him” (Matthew 8:3). We touch lots of things as we move through life without ever thinking much about it. But this touch was different. The man Jesus touched was a man who had most likely forgotten what it felt like to … Read more